Nik
Nik was given to 7 boys in 2025, #10,377 among boys’ names; 217 Americans have been recorded with it since 1964 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Nik by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Nik mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Nik is “a male given name.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Nik?
#10,377 among boys’ names, 2025
Nik fell from #9,315 in 2015 to #10,377 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 4.2 to 4.1 per million.
9 babies in 2005, the peak
Nik peaked in 2005, when 9 boys were given it, #8,102 among boys’ names. The 7 births of 2025 are 78% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 7 | #10,377 | 4.1 |
| 2024 | 5 | #13,653 | 2.9 |
| 2023 | 7 | #10,484 | 4.1 |
| 2019 | 9 | #8,672 | 5.0 |
| 2018 | 5 | #13,547 | 2.8 |
| 2017 | 7 | #10,465 | 3.8 |
| 2015 | 8 | #9,315 | 4.2 |
| 2013 | 6 | #11,742 | 3.2 |
| 2012 | 5 | #13,642 | 2.6 |
| 2011 | 7 | #10,444 | 3.7 |
Every recorded year (34)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 6 | #12,038 | 3.0 |
| 2008 | 9 | #8,801 | 4.4 |
| 2007 | 8 | #9,501 | 3.9 |
| 2006 | 9 | #8,535 | 4.4 |
| 2005 | 9 | #8,102 | 4.5 |
| 2003 | 6 | #10,491 | 3.0 |
| 2002 | 7 | #9,107 | 3.6 |
| 1997 | 5 | #10,324 | 2.7 |
| 1995 | 6 | #8,564 | 3.2 |
| 1993 | 6 | #8,372 | 3.1 |
| 1991 | 5 | #9,186 | 2.5 |
| 1990 | 7 | #6,939 | 3.4 |
| 1989 | 5 | #8,843 | 2.5 |
| 1987 | 6 | #6,707 | 3.2 |
| 1985 | 6 | #6,282 | 3.2 |
| 1983 | 5 | #6,986 | 2.8 |
| 1981 | 6 | #6,019 | 3.3 |
| 1980 | 5 | #6,974 | 2.8 |
| 1977 | 7 | #4,955 | 4.3 |
| 1976 | 6 | #5,411 | 3.8 |
| 1974 | 5 | #5,764 | 3.2 |
| 1973 | 5 | #5,638 | 3.2 |
| 1972 | 7 | #4,300 | 4.3 |
| 1964 | 5 | #4,450 | 2.5 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Nik a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Nik has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 34 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Nik: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Nik, and how old are they?
An estimated 209 Americans named Nik and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (96% of everyone recorded); the median is 21 years old and half are between 13 and 39. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 1,785 people named Nik (206 women and girls, 1,579 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 192 born in the U.S. The Census count is 9.3 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census records the name people give, which for many is the short form Nik rather than the name on their birth record, and it counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out.
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 3 names spelled alike, given to 50,883 babies since 1880, Nik is the second most given (<1% of them). In 2025 it was given to 7 of their 131 babies (5.3%), again the second 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 Nik
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 Nik and names like it
- Compare Nik and NickBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sNik peaked in 2005.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Nik since 1910.
- The top names of 2005The year the most babies were named Nik.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Nik alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with NMost given first.