Name Awesome

Nicolaas

#11,605 in 2025Boys' name

Form of Nicholas

Nicolaas has been given to 404 babies in the U.S. since 1960. In 2025 it ranked #11,605 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 1996, with 22 recorded.

Babies named Nicolaas, 2025

1 in 553,000

Nicolaas over time, 1880–2025

Boys
010203018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Nicolaas: meaning, origin, and history

Form of Nicholas

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Nicolaas means

Nicolaas is a form of Nicholas.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Nicolaas is used in Dutch.

Another recorded pronunciation is /ˈni.koː.laːs/ for Nicolaas.

Meaning behind the documented name family

The name developed through Nicolaas → Nicholas. The family’s meaning is “victory + people”, recorded in English with the source elements νίκη and λαός.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Nicholas.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 404 boys were recorded with the name Nicolaas between 1960 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 22 in 1996; its best national rank was #3,258 in 1996.

Over 10 years its rank rose, from #13,472 in 2015 to #11,605 in 2025.

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 Nicolaas?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 553,000
6 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 285,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#11,605
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
382,984 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Nicolaas 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 2025 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 382,984 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Nicolaas. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Nicolaass were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Nicolaas was born before 1996 — so the typical Nicolaas is around 29 today.

Median birth year
1996
About 29 years old
Biggest decade
1990s
32.4% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
36.6%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
404
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1990s — 32.4% of all recorded uses (131).

Is Nicolaas 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
+1,867
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
1.20×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
27.3%
Peak was 1996 (22)
Years since peak
29
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
40.9% average annual change
Best rank ever
#3,258
1996

Spellings of Nicolaas

Nicolaas is not the most common spelling — Nicholas is, with 83.2% against Nicolaas's 0.04%.

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 Nicolaas is used

Across 1910–2025, Nicolaas was most concentrated in California — about 1 in — boys, against 1 in 1,452,725 across all states with data.

00 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 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. Nicolaas has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Nicolaas around the world

Where Nicolaas 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.

  • England & Wales
    2006–2015
    #4,747
    in 2015
  • Canada
    1992–2016
    #2,748
    in 2016
  • South Australia
    1956–2007
    #680
    in 2007

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Nicolaas by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#11,605
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
New entry
Best rank ever
#3,258
1996
Peak year
1996
22 that year
First recorded
1960
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
404
Count in 2025
6

Names similar to Nicolaas

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

NickolaiNicholiNicandroNicholaiNicksonNicasioNicholaasNickalusNickolusNichalosNichalasNickalasNickalosNickolisNiccoloNicklousNicodemusNicholisNicholusNicholosNickolesNiccolasNicholesNicklaus

Sibling names for Nicolaas

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 Nicolaas

Top names of 1996, Nicolaas's peak yearThe 1990s in fullOther names that peaked in 1996Boys' names starting with NUncommon Dutch Boy Names