Niklaus
Niklaus was given to 130 boys in 2025, #1,407 among boys’ names; 2,430 Americans have been recorded with it since 1979 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 2,410 Americans named Niklaus and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 6 years old and half are between 4 and 10.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Niklaus by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Niklaus mean?
Wiktionary, German section
Niklaus is “a male given name, variant of Nikolaus”
Meaning: Wiktionary, German section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Niklaus?
#1,407 among boys’ names, 2025
Niklaus rose from #1,585 in 2015 to #1,407 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 53.2 to 76.1 per million.
282 babies in 2021, the peak
Niklaus peaked in 2021, when 282 boys were given it, #844 among boys’ names. The 130 births of 2025 are 46% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 130 | #1,407 | 0.08 |
| 2024 | 163 | #1,233 | 0.09 |
| 2023 | 185 | #1,138 | 0.11 |
| 2022 | 236 | #962 | 0.14 |
| 2021 | 282 | #844 | 0.16 |
| 2020 | 255 | #889 | 0.15 |
| 2019 | 221 | #973 | 0.12 |
| 2018 | 183 | #1,083 | 0.10 |
| 2017 | 156 | #1,194 | 0.08 |
| 2016 | 118 | #1,462 | 0.06 |
Every recorded year (44)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 102 | #1,585 | 0.05 |
| 2014 | 63 | #2,169 | 0.03 |
| 2013 | 37 | #3,036 | 0.02 |
| 2012 | 14 | #6,211 | 0.01 |
| 2010 | 7 | #10,429 | under 0.01 |
| 2009 | 6 | #12,040 | under 0.01 |
| 2008 | 5 | #14,015 | under 0.01 |
| 2007 | 10 | #8,000 | under 0.01 |
| 2006 | 16 | #5,459 | 0.01 |
| 2005 | 7 | #9,838 | under 0.01 |
| 2004 | 13 | #6,039 | 0.01 |
| 2003 | 11 | #6,583 | 0.01 |
| 2002 | 12 | #5,962 | 0.01 |
| 2001 | 9 | #7,337 | under 0.01 |
| 2000 | 13 | #5,490 | 0.01 |
| 1999 | 17 | #4,279 | 0.01 |
| 1998 | 18 | #3,959 | 0.01 |
| 1997 | 13 | #4,867 | 0.01 |
| 1996 | 8 | #6,931 | under 0.01 |
| 1995 | 12 | #5,024 | 0.01 |
| 1994 | 9 | #6,199 | under 0.01 |
| 1993 | 12 | #4,909 | 0.01 |
| 1992 | 10 | #5,530 | 0.01 |
| 1991 | 9 | #5,801 | under 0.01 |
| 1990 | 7 | #6,940 | under 0.01 |
| 1989 | 8 | #6,048 | under 0.01 |
| 1988 | 8 | #5,569 | under 0.01 |
| 1987 | 7 | #5,904 | under 0.01 |
| 1986 | 6 | #6,484 | under 0.01 |
| 1985 | 6 | #6,283 | under 0.01 |
| 1984 | 5 | #7,015 | under 0.01 |
| 1983 | 5 | #6,987 | under 0.01 |
| 1980 | 8 | #4,817 | under 0.01 |
| 1979 | 8 | #4,714 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Niklaus a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Niklaus has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 44 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Niklaus: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Niklaus, and how old are they?
2,410 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 2,430 Americans ever recorded as Niklaus. The median Niklaus alive today is 6 years old; half are between 4 and 10.
The 2020 Census counted 1,002 people named Niklaus (3 women and girls, 999 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,230 born in the U.S. The Census count is 19% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 15 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 107 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 168 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 2,120 |
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 Niklaus born?
The states with the most babies named Niklaus are Texas, New York and California, with 49% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 14 | #1,394 | 0.8× |
| New York | 12 | #1,036 | 0.8× |
| California | 8 | #1,942 | 0.5× |
| Florida | 8 | #1,438 | 1.0× |
| North Carolina | 7 | #1,111 | 0.7× |
| Washington | 6 | #964 | 0.4× |
| Michigan | 5 | #1,220 | 0.8× |
| Illinois | 5 | #1,428 | 0.6× |
| Missouri | 5 | #960 | 0.6× |
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 Niklaus 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 40,606 babies since 1880, Niklaus is the fifth most given (6.0% of them). In 2025 it was given to 130 of their 608 babies (21%), the second most given that year.
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 Niklaus
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 Niklaus and names like it
- Compare Niklaus and NikolasBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sNiklaus peaked in 2021.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Niklaus since 1910.
- German namesWiktionary’s origin for Niklaus: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2021The year the most babies were named Niklaus.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Niklaus alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with NMost given first.