Name Awesome

Nicanor

Boys' name

Victory + man

Nicanor has been given to 787 babies in the U.S. since 1913. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1982, with 20 recorded.

Babies named Nicanor, 2023

1 in 474,000

Nicanor over time, 1880–2025

Boys
0510152018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Nicanor: meaning, origin, and history

Victory + man

Ancient Greek and Spanish

What Nicanor means

Nicanor means “victory + man”.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Nicanor is used in Ancient Greek (Latinized), Biblical, Biblical Latin and Spanish.

Another recorded pronunciation is /ni.ka.ˈnor/ for Nicanor.

Origin, language, and formation

Nicanor is used in English, Latin, Spanish and Tagalog. Its origins include Ancient Greek and Spanish.

Nicanor comes through Ancient Greek Nικάνωρ.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Latin, Nicanor is pronounced [niːˈkaː.nɔr].

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 787 boys were recorded with the name Nicanor between 1913 and 2023. Its highest annual count was 20 in 1982; its best national rank was #2,281 in 1954.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Nicanor?

Nicanor had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2023, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2023
1 in 474,000
7 of 3,314,783 births
Among boys only
1 in 244,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2023
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
328,234 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Nicanor sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2023 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 328,234 children born in 2023 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Nicanor. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Nicanors were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Nicanor was born before 1981 — so the typical Nicanor is around 44 today.

Median birth year
1981
About 44 years old
Biggest decade
1980s
14.9% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
26.4%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
647
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1980s — 14.9% of all recorded uses (117).

Is Nicanor rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 1982 (20)
Years since peak
43
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
25.5% average annual change
Best rank ever
#2,281
1954

Where Nicanor is used

Across 1910–2025, Nicanor was most concentrated in California — about 1 in — boys, against 1 in 274,073 across all states with data. It was least common in Texas (1 in —).

00 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in —
  2. 2Texas1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Nicanor has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Nicanor around the world

Where Nicanor ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • France
    2025–2025
    #5,217
    in 2025

Popularity data from Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0.

Nicanor by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#2,281
1954
Peak year
1982
20 that year
First recorded
1913
Last recorded
2023
All-time count
787
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Nicanor

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

NiccoloNicholiNicolaiNicksonNicasioNicholaiNicklasNickolaiNicholsNicolaasNicoloEleanorNicodemusNiccoNicholosNicholusNicholisNicolaNicholesNicandroNicklausNickalasNickoliNicklos

Sibling names for Nicanor

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Nicanor

Top names of 1982, Nicanor's peak yearThe 1980s in fullOther names that peaked in 1954Boys' names starting with N