Nicolai
Nicolai was given to 51 boys in 2025, #2,590 among boys’ names; 1,865 Americans have been recorded with it since 1962 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,830 Americans named Nicolai and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 16 years old and half are between 9 and 26.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Nicolai by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Nicolai mean?
Wiktionary, Danish section
Nicolai is “a male given name from Latin Nīcolāī (genitive) or Russian Никола́й (Nikoláj), of traditionally popular usage, equivalent to English Nicholas; the use of the genitive in Latin is common in church names”
[ˈneɡ̊olaɪ̯]
Meaning: Wiktionary, Danish section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Nicolai?
#2,590 among boys’ names, 2025
Nicolai fell from #1,883 in 2015 to #2,590 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 40.7 to 29.9 per million.
78 babies in 2015, the peak
Nicolai peaked in 2015, when 78 boys were given it, #1,883 among boys’ names. The 51 births of 2025 are 65% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 51 | #2,590 | 29.9 |
| 2024 | 52 | #2,586 | 30.2 |
| 2023 | 54 | #2,501 | 31.6 |
| 2022 | 69 | #2,146 | 39.5 |
| 2021 | 50 | #2,611 | 28.6 |
| 2020 | 50 | #2,574 | 29.0 |
| 2019 | 55 | #2,453 | 30.7 |
| 2018 | 62 | #2,221 | 34.1 |
| 2017 | 45 | #2,747 | 24.3 |
| 2016 | 66 | #2,129 | 34.8 |
Every recorded year (54)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 78 | #1,883 | 40.7 |
| 2014 | 68 | #2,074 | 35.4 |
| 2013 | 60 | #2,193 | 31.7 |
| 2012 | 63 | #2,146 | 33.2 |
| 2011 | 50 | #2,496 | 26.3 |
| 2010 | 60 | #2,200 | 31.3 |
| 2009 | 59 | #2,245 | 29.7 |
| 2008 | 70 | #2,020 | 34.3 |
| 2007 | 50 | #2,526 | 24.1 |
| 2006 | 57 | #2,238 | 27.7 |
| 2005 | 48 | #2,416 | 24.0 |
| 2004 | 47 | #2,401 | 23.7 |
| 2003 | 45 | #2,378 | 22.8 |
| 2002 | 30 | #3,061 | 15.5 |
| 2001 | 27 | #3,293 | 13.9 |
| 2000 | 30 | #2,965 | 15.3 |
| 1999 | 28 | #2,994 | 14.6 |
| 1998 | 29 | #2,832 | 15.2 |
| 1997 | 30 | #2,658 | 15.9 |
| 1996 | 23 | #3,171 | 12.1 |
| 1995 | 41 | #2,043 | 21.5 |
| 1994 | 32 | #2,427 | 16.6 |
| 1993 | 20 | #3,325 | 10.2 |
| 1992 | 23 | #2,967 | 11.5 |
| 1991 | 22 | #2,957 | 10.9 |
| 1990 | 36 | #2,065 | 17.5 |
| 1989 | 26 | #2,519 | 13.0 |
| 1988 | 14 | #3,645 | 7.3 |
| 1987 | 9 | #4,837 | 4.8 |
| 1986 | 16 | #3,086 | 8.7 |
| 1985 | 10 | #4,248 | 5.4 |
| 1984 | 11 | #3,855 | 6.1 |
| 1983 | 15 | #3,024 | 8.4 |
| 1982 | 5 | #7,055 | 2.8 |
| 1981 | 11 | #3,782 | 6.1 |
| 1980 | 8 | #4,816 | 4.5 |
| 1979 | 7 | #5,203 | 4.1 |
| 1978 | 6 | #5,560 | 3.7 |
| 1977 | 7 | #4,954 | 4.3 |
| 1976 | 13 | #3,046 | 8.3 |
| 1975 | 10 | #3,597 | 6.4 |
| 1974 | 5 | #5,762 | 3.2 |
| 1969 | 6 | #4,270 | 3.4 |
| 1962 | 6 | #3,907 | 2.9 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Nicolai a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Nicolai has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 54 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Nicolai: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Nicolai, and how old are they?
1,830 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 1,865 Americans ever recorded as Nicolai. The median Nicolai alive today is 16 years old; half are between 9 and 26.
The 2020 Census counted 1,819 people named Nicolai (34 women and girls, 1,785 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,525 born in the U.S. The Census count is 19% above 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.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 5 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 56 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 300 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 712 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 754 |
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).
Where are babies named Nicolai born?
The states with the most babies named Nicolai are California, Texas and Florida, with 76% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 7 | #2,141 | 1.3× |
| Texas | 6 | #2,478 | 0.6× |
| Florida | 6 | #1,778 | 0.7× |
| Ohio | 6 | #1,213 | 0.1× |
Where Nicolai is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Nicolai is most over-represented in California: since 1962 it was given 1.3 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among boys’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Nicolai with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 20,747 babies since 1880, Nicolai is the third most given (9.0% of them). In 2025 it was given to 51 of their 706 babies (7.2%), again the third most given.
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 Nicolai
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 Nicolai and names like it
- Compare Nicolai and NikolaiBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sNicolai peaked in 2015.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Nicolai since 1910.
- Latin namesWiktionary’s origin for Nicolai: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2015The year the most babies were named Nicolai.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Nicolai alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with NMost given first.