Nikola
Nikola was given to 102 boys in 2025, #1,651 among boys’ names; 4,102 Americans have been recorded with it since 1948 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 4,000 Americans named Nikola and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 15 years old and half are between 8 and 28.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Nikola by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Nikola mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Nikola is “a transliteration of the Bulgarian, Macedonian, or Serbo-Croatian male given name Никола (Nikola), equivalent to Nicholas”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Nikola?
#1,651 among boys’ names, 2025
Nikola fell from #1,277 in 2015 to #1,651 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 73.6 to 59.7 per million.
159 babies in 2020, the peak
Nikola peaked in 2020, when 159 babies were given it (151 boys, #1,239 among boys’ names). The 109 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 69% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 7 | #12,816 | 102 | #1,651 |
| 2024 | 6 | #14,796 | 108 | #1,595 |
| 2023 | 6 | #14,675 | 126 | #1,446 |
| 2022 | 9 | #10,984 | 125 | #1,453 |
| 2021 | 12 | #8,847 | 147 | #1,295 |
| 2020 | 8 | #11,831 | 151 | #1,239 |
| 2019 | 18 | #6,626 | 134 | #1,344 |
| 2018 | 10 | #10,356 | 148 | #1,250 |
| 2017 | 9 | #11,367 | 132 | #1,357 |
| 2016 | 18 | #6,834 | 132 | #1,355 |
Every recorded year (66)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 16 | #7,508 | 141 | #1,277 |
| 2014 | 13 | #8,828 | 120 | #1,411 |
| 2013 | 11 | #10,065 | 110 | #1,490 |
| 2012 | 12 | #9,552 | 102 | #1,557 |
| 2011 | 9 | #11,901 | 97 | #1,597 |
| 2010 | 16 | #7,793 | 81 | #1,812 |
| 2009 | 11 | #10,467 | 81 | #1,836 |
| 2008 | 11 | #10,598 | 88 | #1,731 |
| 2007 | 11 | #10,624 | 65 | #2,107 |
| 2006 | 11 | #10,416 | 71 | #1,910 |
| 2005 | 16 | #7,402 | 61 | #2,049 |
| 2004 | 10 | #10,478 | 73 | #1,740 |
| 2003 | 5 | #17,639 | 54 | #2,092 |
| 2002 | 10 | #10,033 | 59 | #1,906 |
| 2001 | 10 | #9,897 | 76 | #1,580 |
| 2000 | 13 | #7,908 | 64 | #1,749 |
| 1999 | 9 | #10,087 | 56 | #1,793 |
| 1998 | 11 | #8,415 | 45 | #2,084 |
| 1997 | 8 | #10,514 | 38 | #2,248 |
| 1996 | 15 | #6,287 | 41 | #2,096 |
| 1995 | 10 | #8,543 | 40 | #2,083 |
| 1994 | 12 | #7,454 | 50 | #1,762 |
| 1993 | 10 | #8,506 | 46 | #1,839 |
| 1992 | 10 | #8,528 | 26 | #2,717 |
| 1991 | 10 | #8,408 | 29 | #2,444 |
| 1990 | 5 | #14,526 | 34 | #2,147 |
| 1989 | 9 | #8,526 | 27 | #2,445 |
| 1988 | under 5 | 20 | #2,822 | |
| 1987 | 11 | #6,633 | 16 | #3,159 |
| 1986 | under 5 | 12 | #3,807 | |
| 1985 | 7 | #8,983 | 22 | #2,408 |
| 1984 | 8 | #7,924 | 17 | #2,783 |
| 1983 | 12 | #5,709 | 13 | #3,368 |
| 1982 | 11 | #6,227 | 26 | #2,096 |
| 1981 | 7 | #8,745 | 19 | #2,548 |
| 1980 | 7 | #8,773 | 20 | #2,503 |
| 1979 | 12 | #5,638 | 19 | #2,526 |
| 1978 | 13 | #5,118 | 20 | #2,350 |
| 1977 | 16 | #4,361 | 19 | #2,433 |
| 1976 | 11 | #5,472 | 14 | #2,914 |
| 1975 | 18 | #3,725 | 18 | #2,419 |
| 1974 | 14 | #4,379 | 13 | #2,898 |
| 1973 | 19 | #3,428 | 7 | #4,375 |
| 1972 | 20 | #3,247 | 14 | #2,624 |
| 1971 | 13 | #4,466 | 9 | #3,574 |
| 1970 | 17 | #3,675 | 12 | #2,835 |
| 1969 | 9 | #5,334 | 8 | #3,503 |
| 1968 | 5 | #7,829 | 6 | #3,999 |
| 1967 | 8 | #5,306 | under 5 | |
| 1966 | 6 | #6,338 | 9 | #2,918 |
| 1965 | 7 | #5,650 | under 5 | |
| 1964 | 5 | #7,481 | 7 | #3,512 |
| 1962 | under 5 | 12 | #2,470 | |
| 1961 | under 5 | 7 | #3,570 | |
| 1960 | under 5 | 5 | #4,434 | |
| 1948 | 5 | #5,796 | under 5 |
Ranks: girls’ names and boys’ names ranked separately in each year’s SSA file; “under 5” is a year SSA did not list the name for that sex.
Is Nikola a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 4,102 Americans recorded as Nikola, 16% are girls and 84% boys. In 2025 it went to 7 girls and 102 boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Nikola: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Nikola, and how old are they?
4,000 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 4,102 Americans ever recorded as Nikola. The median Nikola alive today is 15 years old; half are between 8 and 28.
The 2020 Census counted 5,177 people named Nikola (786 women and girls, 4,391 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 3,267 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1.6 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census records the name people give, which for many is the short form Nikola rather than the name on their birth record, and it counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 32 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 351 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 551 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,270 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,810 |
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 Nikola born?
The states with the most babies named Nikola are California, Illinois and Florida, with 57% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 14 | #1,347 | 0.8× |
| Illinois | 11 | #786 | 2.6× |
| Florida | 9 | #1,323 | 0.8× |
| Ohio | 9 | #918 | 0.7× |
| New York | 6 | #1,692 | 0.8× |
| Washington | 6 | #965 | 0.3× |
| Wisconsin | 5 | #854 | 0.2× |
Where Nikola is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Nikola is most over-represented in Illinois: since 1948 it was given 2.6 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 Nikola 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, Nikola is the second most given (20% of them). In 2025 it was given to 109 of their 706 babies (15%), 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 Nikola
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 Nikola and names like it
- Compare Nikola and NikolaiBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sNikola peaked in 2020.
- Illinois’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Nikola since 1910.
- The top names of 2020The year the most babies were named Nikola.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Nikola alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with NMost given first.