Nikolas
Nikolas was given to 375 boys in 2025, #719 among boys’ names; 24,050 Americans have been recorded with it since 1937 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 23,500 Americans named Nikolas and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 22 years old and half are between 13 and 29.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Nikolas by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Nikolas mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Nikolas is “a transliteration of the Greek male given name Νικόλας (Nikólas), used in Greece.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Nikolas?
#719 among boys’ names, 2025
Nikolas fell from #566 in 2015 to #719 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 0.26 to 0.22 per 1,000.
1,065 babies in 2004, the peak
Nikolas peaked in 2004, when 1,065 babies were given it (1,060 boys, #301 among boys’ names). The 375 births of 2025 are 35% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 375 | #719 | 0.22 |
| 2024 | 362 | #729 | 0.21 |
| 2023 | 422 | #650 | 0.25 |
| 2022 | 475 | #595 | 0.27 |
| 2021 | 477 | #585 | 0.27 |
| 2020 | 453 | #604 | 0.26 |
| 2019 | 454 | #603 | 0.25 |
| 2018 | 502 | #553 | 0.28 |
| 2017 | 463 | #589 | 0.25 |
| 2016 | 499 | #566 | 0.26 |
Every recorded year (67)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 497 | #566 | 0.26 |
| 2014 | 495 | #557 | 0.26 |
| 2013 | 520 | #514 | 0.27 |
| 2012 | 550 | #487 | 0.29 |
| 2011 | 562 | #475 | 0.30 |
| 2010 | 591 | #455 | 0.31 |
| 2009 | 633 | #443 | 0.32 |
| 2008 | 674 | #430 | 0.33 |
| 2007 | 741 | #398 | 0.36 |
| 2006 | 780 | #383 | 0.38 |
| 2005 | 898 | #336 | 0.45 |
| 2004 | 1,060 | #301 | 0.53 |
| 2003 | 795 | #352 | 0.40 |
| 2002 | 745 | #358 | 0.38 |
| 2001 | 747 | #355 | 0.38 |
| 2000 | 739 | #358 | 0.38 |
| 1999 | 885 | #319 | 0.46 |
| 1998 | 1,007 | #287 | 0.53 |
| 1997 | 718 | #353 | 0.38 |
| 1996 | 599 | #394 | 0.32 |
| 1995 | 487 | #464 | 0.26 |
| 1994 | 492 | #451 | 0.25 |
| 1993 | 458 | #459 | 0.23 |
| 1992 | 443 | #478 | 0.22 |
| 1991 | 418 | #483 | 0.21 |
| 1990 | 439 | #473 | 0.21 |
| 1989 | 350 | #512 | 0.17 |
| 1988 | 289 | #542 | 0.15 |
| 1987 | 216 | #621 | 0.12 |
| 1986 | 201 | #633 | 0.11 |
| 1985 | 185 | #645 | 0.10 |
| 1984 | 169 | #668 | 0.09 |
| 1983 | 149 | #702 | 0.08 |
| 1982 | 136 | #757 | 0.07 |
| 1981 | 133 | #758 | 0.07 |
| 1980 | 127 | #777 | 0.07 |
| 1979 | 132 | #757 | 0.08 |
| 1978 | 108 | #823 | 0.07 |
| 1977 | 56 | #1,183 | 0.03 |
| 1976 | 28 | #1,812 | 0.02 |
| 1975 | 41 | #1,372 | 0.03 |
| 1974 | 35 | #1,490 | 0.02 |
| 1973 | 31 | #1,575 | 0.02 |
| 1972 | 30 | #1,594 | 0.02 |
| 1971 | 23 | #1,896 | 0.01 |
| 1970 | 18 | #2,189 | 0.01 |
| 1969 | 32 | #1,429 | 0.02 |
| 1968 | 20 | #1,815 | 0.01 |
| 1967 | 14 | #2,222 | 0.01 |
| 1966 | 10 | #2,739 | 0.01 |
| 1965 | 11 | #2,575 | 0.01 |
| 1964 | 6 | #3,911 | under 0.01 |
| 1963 | 8 | #3,249 | under 0.01 |
| 1960 | 6 | #3,940 | under 0.01 |
| 1958 | 5 | #4,345 | under 0.01 |
| 1949 | 5 | #4,066 | under 0.01 |
| 1937 | 6 | #3,410 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Nikolas a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Nikolas has been given almost only to boys: 15 girls in 67 years of records.
Girls and boys named Nikolas: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Nikolas, and how old are they?
23,500 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 24,050 Americans ever recorded as Nikolas. The median Nikolas alive today is 22 years old; half are between 13 and 29.
The 2020 Census counted 18,364 people named Nikolas (57 women and girls, 18,307 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 21,211 born in the U.S. The Census count is 13% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 1 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 22 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 647 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 4,940 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 11,900 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 5,950 |
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 Nikolas born?
The states with the most babies named Nikolas are California, Texas and Florida, with 45% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 62 | #503 | 1.2× |
| Texas | 52 | #598 | 0.9× |
| Florida | 31 | #566 | 1.2× |
| Illinois | 16 | #595 | 1.2× |
| New Jersey | 16 | #482 | 1.0× |
| New York | 14 | #942 | 1.0× |
| Pennsylvania | 13 | #696 | 0.9× |
| Massachusetts | 13 | #403 | 1.2× |
| Arizona | 13 | #551 | 1.2× |
| Georgia | 11 | #833 | 0.6× |
Where Nikolas is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Nikolas is most over-represented in Washington: since 1937 it was given 1.3 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 Nikolas 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 176,600 babies since 1880, Nikolas is the third most given (14% of them). In 2025 it was given to 375 of their 2,758 babies (14%), 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 Nikolas
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 Nikolas and names like it
- Compare Nikolas and NicolasBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sNikolas peaked in 2004.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Nikolas since 1910.
- The top names of 2004The year the most babies were named Nikolas.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Nikolas alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with NMost given first.