Nikola
Feminine · “victory of the people”
Nikola is given to both — 658 girls and 3,444 boys since 1880. See Nikola as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Nikola Tesla arrived in New York in 1884 with four cents and a letter of introduction, and spent the next decade winning the argument about how electricity should be distributed. Alternating current is why power stations can be far away from the places they light. The unit of magnetic flux density is named after him.
How old is the name Nikola?
Nikola first appears in US birth records in 1948 — 77 years ago. The typical Nikola alive today was born around 1996, making them about 29 years old. About 600 people named Nikola are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Nikola most popular?
Nikola peaked in 1972, reaching #3177 nationally. Today it ranks #11932, 8,755 places below that high. See the whole 1972 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Nikolaos to Nikola
The story of Nikola
Tesla was born in what is now Croatia to a Serbian family and carried a name that is entirely ordinary in that part of Europe. His work on alternating current, the induction motor and polyphase systems settled the question of how to move electricity over distance, and the fact that a power station can be a hundred miles from a light bulb follows from it. He died in a New York hotel room with very little money. The name has a border running through it: south of a line it is a man's, north of it a woman's, and both are perfectly ordinary in their own country — which produces regular confusion on any form that crosses the line.
Meaning
victory of the people
Greek Nikolaos: nike, victory, with laos, the people. Nikola is the South Slavic form and is a man's name in Serbia, Croatia, Bulgaria and Macedonia. In Poland and the Czech lands the identical spelling is a woman's name, from Nicole — the same four syllables, two sexes, one border apart.
How the name formed
- Nikolaos
- Nikola
Related forms: Nikola · Nikola · Nikola · Nikolaos
Pronouncing Nikola
NEE-ko-lah
Three syllables, stress on the first, in the Balkan languages. Polish stresses the second, ni-KO-la. English speakers often say ni-KOH-luh, which is closer to the Polish than to the Serbian.
Nicknames for Nikola
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1948
- Most girls named
- 197220 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3177reached in 1972
- Change vs 2024
- +16.7%7 in 2025, from 6
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Nikola in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Nikola in Serbian — same name
- Nikola in Bulgarian — same name
- Nikola in Polish — related form
- Nikolaos in Greek — same name
Nikolas among us
people named Nikola are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 229,610 born in 2025 was named Nikola
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Nikola
- #11932
- Nikola on the 2025 chart
- #941
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Nikola went to 7 girls in 2025, but Nicola is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 19, which makes it the 941st most-given girls’ name of the year — 10,991 places above the chart.
- Nicola12
- Nikola7
About 1 girl in 84,593 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 229,610 for Nikola itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Starlyn test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Nikola's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Starlyn climbed just as high around 1949, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Starlyn's path sketches the road Nikola is walking now.
Nikola sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Nikola beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Nikola in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled Greek meaning with both elements traceable to ordinary words.
- The same spelling across five European languages.
- Three short forms, one of which serves either child.
- A documented modern bearer whose work is visible in every wall socket.
- It is a man's name south of one European border and a woman's north of it.
- The stress moves depending on which country the family comes from.
- The very few girls given this spelling in America will be read as boys on every form.
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What they receive
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Nikola
Feminine · #11932 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Nikolas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Nikola are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Nikola?
- Nikola is one of 2 recorded spellings. Nicola is the more common one — 12 births in 2025 against 7 for Nikola.
- How popular is the name Nikola in 2025?
- Nikola ranks #11932 among US girl names in 2025, with 7 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Nikola?
- About 1 in every 229,610 US girls born in 2025 was named Nikola — 7 in all.
- Will my child share the name Nikola with classmates?
- Nikola will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Nikola
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Vina#11932 · Retta#11932 · Missouri#11932 · Iola#11932 · Eddie#11932 · Thomas#11932 · Louetta#11932 · Elvina#11932
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Nikola? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Nikola and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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