Nicholai
Nicholai was given to 12 boys in 2025, #7,071 among boys’ names; 1,024 Americans have been recorded with it since 1962 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,000 Americans named Nicholai and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 17 years old and half are between 11 and 25.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Nicholai by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Nicholai?
#7,071 among boys’ names, 2025
Nicholai fell from #3,066 in 2015 to #7,071 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 19.8 to 7.0 per million.
51 babies in 2010, the peak
Nicholai peaked in 2010, when 51 boys were given it, #2,457 among boys’ names. The 12 births of 2025 are 24% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 12 | #7,071 | 7.0 |
| 2024 | 17 | #5,590 | 9.9 |
| 2023 | 12 | #7,169 | 7.0 |
| 2022 | 13 | #6,723 | 7.4 |
| 2021 | 16 | #5,703 | 9.1 |
| 2020 | 25 | #4,106 | 14.5 |
| 2019 | 29 | #3,772 | 16.2 |
| 2018 | 30 | #3,673 | 16.5 |
| 2017 | 51 | #2,520 | 27.6 |
| 2016 | 33 | #3,412 | 17.4 |
Every recorded year (50)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 38 | #3,066 | 19.8 |
| 2014 | 29 | #3,664 | 15.1 |
| 2013 | 47 | #2,585 | 24.8 |
| 2012 | 39 | #2,989 | 20.6 |
| 2011 | 45 | #2,692 | 23.7 |
| 2010 | 51 | #2,457 | 26.6 |
| 2009 | 38 | #3,088 | 19.2 |
| 2008 | 47 | #2,664 | 23.0 |
| 2007 | 36 | #3,169 | 17.3 |
| 2006 | 46 | #2,611 | 22.4 |
| 2005 | 34 | #3,064 | 17.0 |
| 2004 | 28 | #3,424 | 14.1 |
| 2003 | 24 | #3,693 | 12.1 |
| 2002 | 19 | #4,279 | 9.8 |
| 2001 | 16 | #4,827 | 8.2 |
| 2000 | 12 | #5,802 | 6.1 |
| 1999 | 12 | #5,557 | 6.2 |
| 1998 | 12 | #5,369 | 6.3 |
| 1997 | 13 | #4,863 | 6.9 |
| 1996 | 13 | #4,800 | 6.9 |
| 1995 | 12 | #5,021 | 6.3 |
| 1994 | 10 | #5,756 | 5.2 |
| 1993 | 18 | #3,595 | 9.2 |
| 1992 | 9 | #5,991 | 4.5 |
| 1991 | 9 | #5,798 | 4.5 |
| 1990 | 12 | #4,583 | 5.8 |
| 1989 | 16 | #3,561 | 8.0 |
| 1988 | 8 | #5,562 | 4.2 |
| 1987 | 5 | #7,779 | 2.7 |
| 1986 | 7 | #5,741 | 3.8 |
| 1985 | 8 | #5,017 | 4.3 |
| 1984 | 12 | #3,609 | 6.6 |
| 1983 | 14 | #3,181 | 7.8 |
| 1982 | 12 | #3,628 | 6.6 |
| 1981 | 7 | #5,313 | 3.9 |
| 1980 | 6 | #6,016 | 3.4 |
| 1979 | 5 | #6,741 | 2.9 |
| 1973 | 5 | #5,634 | 3.2 |
| 1972 | 7 | #4,299 | 4.3 |
| 1962 | 5 | #4,463 | 2.4 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Nicholai a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Nicholai has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 50 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Nicholai: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Nicholai, and how old are they?
1,000 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 1,024 Americans ever recorded as Nicholai. The median Nicholai alive today is 17 years old; half are between 11 and 25.
The 2020 Census counted 883 people named Nicholai (24 women and girls, 859 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 920 born in the U.S. The Census count is 4% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 4 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 21 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 164 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 465 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 349 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Names spelled alike
Of these 2 names spelled alike, given to 1,414 babies since 1880, Nicholai is the most given (72% of them).
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Nicholai
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Nicholai and names like it
- Compare Nicholai and NicholiBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sNicholai peaked in 2010.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Nicholai since 1910.
- The top names of 2010The year the most babies were named Nicholai.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Nicholai alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with NMost given first.