Nikolai
Nikolai was given to 469 boys in 2025, #605 among boys’ names; 11,027 Americans have been recorded with it since 1960 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 10,900 Americans named Nikolai and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 11 years old and half are between 6 and 17.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Nikolai by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Nikolai mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Nikolai is “a transliteration of the Russian male given name Николай (Nikolaj), equivalent to Nicholas.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Nikolai?
#605 among boys’ names, 2025
Nikolai fell from #476 in 2015 to #605 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 0.33 to 0.27 per 1,000.
639 babies in 2016, the peak
Nikolai peaked in 2016, when 639 boys were given it, #480 among boys’ names. The 469 births of 2025 are 73% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 469 | #605 | 0.27 |
| 2024 | 484 | #594 | 0.28 |
| 2023 | 470 | #604 | 0.27 |
| 2022 | 491 | #584 | 0.28 |
| 2021 | 622 | #481 | 0.36 |
| 2020 | 521 | #545 | 0.30 |
| 2019 | 554 | #515 | 0.31 |
| 2018 | 614 | #474 | 0.34 |
| 2017 | 573 | #507 | 0.31 |
| 2016 | 639 | #480 | 0.34 |
Every recorded year (63)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 629 | #476 | 0.33 |
| 2014 | 516 | #540 | 0.27 |
| 2013 | 436 | #585 | 0.23 |
| 2012 | 421 | #602 | 0.22 |
| 2011 | 365 | #640 | 0.19 |
| 2010 | 313 | #734 | 0.16 |
| 2009 | 299 | #760 | 0.15 |
| 2008 | 231 | #903 | 0.11 |
| 2007 | 208 | #953 | 0.10 |
| 2006 | 163 | #1,084 | 0.08 |
| 2005 | 162 | #1,038 | 0.08 |
| 2004 | 141 | #1,124 | 0.07 |
| 2003 | 124 | #1,193 | 0.06 |
| 2002 | 116 | #1,200 | 0.06 |
| 2001 | 108 | #1,236 | 0.06 |
| 2000 | 80 | #1,509 | 0.04 |
| 1999 | 95 | #1,285 | 0.05 |
| 1998 | 94 | #1,281 | 0.05 |
| 1997 | 76 | #1,431 | 0.04 |
| 1996 | 82 | #1,328 | 0.04 |
| 1995 | 68 | #1,446 | 0.04 |
| 1994 | 76 | #1,339 | 0.04 |
| 1993 | 63 | #1,483 | 0.03 |
| 1992 | 62 | #1,478 | 0.03 |
| 1991 | 65 | #1,415 | 0.03 |
| 1990 | 52 | #1,599 | 0.03 |
| 1989 | 46 | #1,693 | 0.02 |
| 1988 | 37 | #1,835 | 0.02 |
| 1987 | 31 | #2,005 | 0.02 |
| 1986 | 29 | #2,039 | 0.02 |
| 1985 | 32 | #1,856 | 0.02 |
| 1984 | 27 | #2,020 | 0.01 |
| 1983 | 18 | #2,640 | 0.01 |
| 1982 | 21 | #2,394 | 0.01 |
| 1981 | 24 | #2,177 | 0.01 |
| 1980 | 26 | #2,098 | 0.01 |
| 1979 | 28 | #1,929 | 0.02 |
| 1978 | 16 | #2,758 | 0.01 |
| 1977 | 24 | #2,046 | 0.01 |
| 1976 | 32 | #1,668 | 0.02 |
| 1975 | 31 | #1,650 | 0.02 |
| 1974 | 21 | #2,094 | 0.01 |
| 1973 | 12 | #2,969 | 0.01 |
| 1972 | 16 | #2,394 | 0.01 |
| 1971 | 12 | #2,924 | 0.01 |
| 1970 | 10 | #3,206 | 0.01 |
| 1969 | 15 | #2,276 | 0.01 |
| 1966 | 5 | #4,355 | under 0.01 |
| 1965 | 8 | #3,168 | under 0.01 |
| 1964 | 8 | #3,212 | under 0.01 |
| 1962 | 5 | #4,466 | under 0.01 |
| 1961 | 5 | #4,473 | under 0.01 |
| 1960 | 6 | #3,939 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Nikolai a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Nikolai has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 63 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Nikolai: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Nikolai, and how old are they?
10,900 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 11,027 Americans ever recorded as Nikolai. The median Nikolai alive today is 11 years old; half are between 6 and 17.
The 2020 Census counted 8,218 people named Nikolai (53 women and girls, 8,165 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 7,996 born in the U.S. The Census count is 3% above that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 19 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 230 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 700 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 2,960 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 6,970 |
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 Nikolai born?
The states with the most babies named Nikolai are California, Texas and Florida, with 37% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 66 | #489 | 1.2× |
| Texas | 45 | #666 | 0.9× |
| Florida | 42 | #447 | 1.2× |
| New York | 25 | #613 | 0.8× |
| Pennsylvania | 23 | #450 | 0.8× |
| Georgia | 20 | #532 | 0.6× |
| Washington | 15 | #492 | 1.2× |
| Ohio | 13 | #700 | 0.7× |
| Michigan | 13 | #628 | 0.8× |
| North Carolina | 13 | #707 | 0.8× |
Where Nikolai is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Nikolai is most over-represented in Washington: since 1960 it was given 1.2 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 Nikolai 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 19,459 babies since 1880, Nikolai is the most given (57% of them). In 2025 it was given to 469 of their 659 babies (71%), again the 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 Nikolai
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 Nikolai and names like it
- Compare Nikolai and NikolaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sNikolai peaked in 2016.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Nikolai since 1910.
- The top names of 2016The year the most babies were named Nikolai.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Nikolai alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with NMost given first.