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Nickolaus

Boys' name

Variant of Nikolaus

Nickolaus has been given to 1,795 babies in the U.S. since 1921. 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 1990, with 72 recorded.

Babies named Nickolaus, 2019

1 in 434,000

Nickolaus over time, 1880–2025

Boys
02040608018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Nickolaus: meaning, origin, and history

Variant of Nikolaus

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Nickolaus means

Nickolaus is a variant of Nikolaus.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Nickolaus is used in German (Rare).

Another recorded pronunciation is /ˈnɪ.ko.laʊ̯s/ and /ˈni.ko.laʊ̯s/ for Nickolaus.

Meaning behind the documented name family

The name developed through Nickolaus → Nikolaus. The family’s meaning is “victory of the people”, recorded in Finnish with the source elements Nikólaos.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Nikolaus.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 1,795 boys were recorded with the name Nickolaus between 1921 and 2019. Its highest annual count was 72 in 1990; its best national rank was #1,162 in 1982.

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 Nickolaus?

Nickolaus had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2019, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2019
1 in 434,000
8 of 3,472,229 births
Among boys only
1 in 224,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2019
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
300,847 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Nickolaus 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 2019 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 300,847 children born in 2019 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Nickolaus. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Nickolauss were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Nickolaus was born before 1993 — so the typical Nickolaus is around 32 today.

Median birth year
1993
About 32 years old
Biggest decade
1990s
33.9% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
43.2%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
1,790
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1990s — 33.9% of all recorded uses (609).

Is Nickolaus 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 1990 (72)
Years since peak
35
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
22.9% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,162
1982

Spellings of Nickolaus

Nickolaus is not the most common spelling — Nicholas is, with 83.2% against Nickolaus's 0.16%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Nickolaus is used

Across 1910–2025, Nickolaus was most concentrated in California — about 1 in 100,000 boys, against 1 in 243,140 across all states with data. It was least common in Wisconsin (1 in —).

01 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in 100,000
  2. 2Texas1 in 100,000
  3. 3Florida1 in —
  4. 4Illinois1 in —
  5. 5Michigan1 in —
  6. 6Minnesota1 in —
  7. 7Missouri1 in —
  8. 8Ohio1 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. Nickolaus has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Nickolaus around the world

Where Nickolaus 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.

  • Canada
    1991–2005
    #2,048
    in 2005
  • South Australia
    1988–1988
    #476
    in 1988

Popularity data from Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Nickolaus 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
#1,162
1982
Peak year
1990
72 that year
First recorded
1921
Last recorded
2019
All-time count
1,795
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Nickolaus

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

NicholausNicklausNicolausNickalausNicodemusNicholaiNicolaiNicklasNickolaiNiccoloNichlausNicolaasNicoloNikolausNicholesNicolaNicholosNicholusNicholisNicholiNicandroNiklausNickalasNichalaus

Sibling names for Nickolaus

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 Nickolaus

Top names of 1990, Nickolaus's peak yearThe 1990s in fullOther names that peaked in 1982Boys' names starting with N