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Nicolae

Boys' name

Victory + people, through Николаи

Nicolae has been given to 174 babies in the U.S. since 2003. 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 2010, with 18 recorded.

Babies named Nicolae, 2024

1 in 478,000

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Nicolae: meaning, origin, and history

Victory + people, through Николаи

Ancient Greek

What Nicolae means

Nicolae belongs to the name family reached through Nicolae → Николаи → Νικόλαος. Its meaning is “victory + people”.

Origin, language, and formation

Nicolae is used in Romanian. Its origins include Ancient Greek.

Nicolae comes through Old Church Slavonic Николаи and Ancient Greek Νικόλαος.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Nicholas, Nicoară, Николаи and Νικόλαος.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Romanian, Nicolae is pronounced /ni.koˈla.e/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 174 boys were recorded with the name Nicolae between 2003 and 2024. Its highest annual count was 18 in 2010; its best national rank was #5,181 in 2010.

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 Nicolae?

Nicolae had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2024, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2024
1 in 478,000
7 of 3,342,801 births
Among boys only
1 in 246,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2024
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
331,009 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Nicolae 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 2024 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 331,009 children born in 2024 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Nicolae. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Nicolaes were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Nicolae was born before 2012 — so the typical Nicolae is around 13 today.

Median birth year
2012
About 13 years old
Biggest decade
2010s
43.7% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
100.0%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
174
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2010s — 43.7% of all recorded uses (76).

Is Nicolae 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 2010 (18)
Years since peak
15
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
45.2% average annual change
Best rank ever
#5,181
2010

Spellings of Nicolae

Nicolae is not the most common spelling — Nicholas is, with 82.7% against Nicolae's 0.02%.

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.

Nicolae around the world

Where Nicolae 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
    2010–2025
    #3,256
    in 2025
  • Ireland
    2009–2023
    #660
    in 2023
  • France
    2008–2025
    #4,839
    in 2025
  • Canada
    2010–2018
    #2,905
    in 2018
  • South Australia
    2000–2000
    #556
    in 2000

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Central Statistics Office, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CSO, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Nicolae 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
#5,181
2010
Peak year
2010
18 that year
First recorded
2003
Last recorded
2024
All-time count
174
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Nicolae

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

NicasioNicksonNicandroNicholiNicholeNichlosNicolisNicholaNicolaasNichlasNicklosNickoliNicolesNiccoloNicolusNickolaiNichaelNickoNiccolasNickolesNicklousNicolaiNickolisNickalos

Sibling names for Nicolae

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 Nicolae

Top names of 2010, Nicolae's peak yearThe 2010s in fullOther names that peaked in 2010Boys' names starting with NRomanian Boy NamesRomanian Names