Niko
Niko was given to 1,046 boys in 2025, #325 among boys’ names; 15,135 Americans have been recorded with it since 1962 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 14,900 Americans named Niko and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 8 years old and half are between 4 and 17.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Niko by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Niko mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Niko is “a diminutive of the male given names Nikola, Nikolas, and Nikolaos, from Greek.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Niko?
#325 among boys’ names, 2025
Niko rose from #629 in 2015 to #325 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 0.22 to 0.61 per 1,000.
1,212 babies in 2022, the peak
Niko peaked in 2022, when 1,212 babies were given it (1,192 boys, #287 among boys’ names). The 1,065 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 88% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 1,046 | #325 | 0.61 |
| 2024 | 1,004 | #344 | 0.58 |
| 2023 | 1,037 | #320 | 0.61 |
| 2022 | 1,192 | #287 | 0.68 |
| 2021 | 1,173 | #290 | 0.67 |
| 2020 | 870 | #358 | 0.50 |
| 2019 | 743 | #416 | 0.41 |
| 2018 | 549 | #518 | 0.30 |
| 2017 | 507 | #549 | 0.27 |
| 2016 | 439 | #613 | 0.23 |
Every recorded year (59)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 425 | #629 | 0.22 |
| 2014 | 432 | #618 | 0.22 |
| 2013 | 433 | #587 | 0.23 |
| 2012 | 346 | #688 | 0.18 |
| 2011 | 303 | #749 | 0.16 |
| 2010 | 278 | #789 | 0.14 |
| 2009 | 273 | #814 | 0.14 |
| 2008 | 264 | #831 | 0.13 |
| 2007 | 217 | #915 | 0.10 |
| 2006 | 190 | #978 | 0.09 |
| 2005 | 162 | #1,037 | 0.08 |
| 2004 | 175 | #960 | 0.09 |
| 2003 | 177 | #929 | 0.09 |
| 2002 | 158 | #994 | 0.08 |
| 2001 | 166 | #937 | 0.09 |
| 2000 | 140 | #1,036 | 0.07 |
| 1999 | 123 | #1,091 | 0.06 |
| 1998 | 148 | #947 | 0.08 |
| 1997 | 147 | #926 | 0.08 |
| 1996 | 146 | #903 | 0.08 |
| 1995 | 166 | #833 | 0.09 |
| 1994 | 156 | #856 | 0.08 |
| 1993 | 142 | #902 | 0.07 |
| 1992 | 141 | #888 | 0.07 |
| 1991 | 170 | #787 | 0.08 |
| 1990 | 171 | #772 | 0.08 |
| 1989 | 141 | #844 | 0.07 |
| 1988 | 75 | #1,168 | 0.04 |
| 1987 | 11 | #4,154 | 0.01 |
| 1986 | 7 | #5,744 | under 0.01 |
| 1985 | 13 | #3,538 | 0.01 |
| 1984 | 18 | #2,673 | 0.01 |
| 1983 | 21 | #2,387 | 0.01 |
| 1982 | 7 | #5,434 | under 0.01 |
| 1981 | 14 | #3,168 | 0.01 |
| 1980 | 6 | #6,019 | under 0.01 |
| 1979 | 6 | #5,839 | under 0.01 |
| 1978 | 8 | #4,441 | under 0.01 |
| 1977 | 8 | #4,461 | under 0.01 |
| 1975 | 6 | #5,263 | under 0.01 |
| 1974 | 8 | #4,080 | 0.01 |
| 1973 | 16 | #2,471 | 0.01 |
| 1972 | 13 | #2,774 | 0.01 |
| 1971 | 12 | #2,923 | 0.01 |
| 1970 | 9 | #3,446 | under 0.01 |
| 1969 | 5 | #4,829 | under 0.01 |
| 1968 | 6 | #3,998 | under 0.01 |
| 1966 | 5 | #4,354 | under 0.01 |
| 1962 | 5 | #4,465 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Niko a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 15,135 Americans recorded as Niko, 3% are girls and 97% boys. In 2025 it went to 19 girls and 1,046 boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Niko: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Niko, and how old are they?
14,900 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 15,135 Americans ever recorded as Niko. The median Niko alive today is 8 years old; half are between 4 and 17.
The 2020 Census counted 9,382 people named Niko (479 women and girls, 8,903 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 8,811 born in the U.S. The Census count is 6% above that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 4 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 235 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 1,380 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 3,340 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 9,970 |
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 Niko born?
The states with the most babies named Niko are California, Texas and New York, with 33% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 185 | #201 | 1.4× |
| Texas | 88 | #406 | 0.7× |
| New York | 68 | #275 | 1.1× |
| Florida | 63 | #311 | 1.0× |
| Pennsylvania | 46 | #258 | 1.0× |
| Ohio | 42 | #295 | 0.8× |
| Michigan | 37 | #274 | 1.0× |
| Washington | 31 | #249 | 1.1× |
| Georgia | 30 | #391 | 0.5× |
| North Carolina | 29 | #393 | 0.6× |
Where Niko is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Niko is most over-represented in California: since 1962 it was given 1.4 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 Niko 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 53,712 babies since 1880, Niko is the second most given (28% of them). In 2025 it was given to 1,065 of their 3,353 babies (32%), 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 Niko
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 Niko and names like it
- Compare Niko and NicoBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sNiko peaked in 2022.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Niko since 1910.
- The top names of 2022The year the most babies were named Niko.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Niko alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with NMost given first.