Nicolae
Nicolae was last recorded in 2024, when 7 babies were given it; 174 Americans have been recorded with it between 2003 and 2024 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Nicolae by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Nicolae mean?
Wiktionary, Romanian section
Nicolae is “a male given name from Ancient Greek, equivalent to English Nicholas”
Taken from Old Church Slavonic Николаи (Nikolai), from Ancient Greek Νικόλαος (Nikólaos). Doublet of Nicoară.
/ni.koˈla.e/
Meaning: Wiktionary, Romanian section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Nicolae?
Unranked in 2025
Its last boys’ rank on record is #10,600, in 2024; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
18 babies in 2010, the peak
Nicolae peaked in 2010, when 18 boys were given it, #5,181 among boys’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 7 | #10,600 | 4.1 |
| 2023 | 5 | #13,578 | 2.9 |
| 2022 | 8 | #9,584 | 4.6 |
| 2021 | 11 | #7,437 | 6.3 |
| 2019 | 6 | #11,735 | 3.3 |
| 2018 | 5 | #13,543 | 2.8 |
| 2017 | 10 | #7,969 | 5.4 |
| 2016 | 6 | #11,730 | 3.2 |
| 2015 | 8 | #9,314 | 4.2 |
| 2014 | 9 | #8,591 | 4.7 |
Every recorded year (20)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 5 | #13,485 | 2.6 |
| 2012 | 9 | #8,667 | 4.7 |
| 2010 | 18 | #5,181 | 9.4 |
| 2009 | 8 | #9,613 | 4.0 |
| 2008 | 9 | #8,799 | 4.4 |
| 2007 | 10 | #7,997 | 4.8 |
| 2006 | 7 | #10,337 | 3.4 |
| 2005 | 11 | #6,969 | 5.5 |
| 2004 | 15 | #5,413 | 7.6 |
| 2003 | 7 | #9,330 | 3.5 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Nicolae a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Nicolae has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 20 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Nicolae: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Nicolae, and how old are they?
An estimated 172 Americans named Nicolae and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 14 years old and half are between 9 and 19. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 1,309 people named Nicolae (14 women and girls, 1,295 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 142 born in the U.S. The Census count is 9.2 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
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 8 names spelled alike, given to 20,258 babies since 1880, Nicolae is the eighth most given (<1% of them). In 2025 none of their 700 babies recorded by SSA was a Nicolae (SSA lists a name only with 5 or more babies of one sex).
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 Nicolae
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 Nicolae and names like it
- Compare Nicolae and NikolaiBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sNicolae peaked in 2010.
- Ancient Greek namesWiktionary’s origin for Nicolae: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2010The year the most babies were named Nicolae.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Nicolae alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with NMost given first.