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Nicolaus

Boys' name

Form of Nikolaos

Nicolaus has been given to 1,141 babies in the U.S. since 1971. 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 1998, with 47 recorded.

Babies named Nicolaus, 2023

1 in 368,000

Nicolaus over time, 1880–2025

Boys
020406018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Nicolaus: meaning, origin, and history

Form of Nikolaos

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Nicolaus means

Nicolaus is a form of Nikolaos.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Nicolaus is used in German and Ancient Greek (Latinized).

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

Meaning behind the documented name family

The name developed through Nicolaus → Nikolaos. The family’s meaning is “I conquer + people”, recorded in English with the source elements νικάω and λαός.

Origin, language, and formation

Nicolaus is used in German and Latin.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Nikolaos.

Pronunciation and spelling

In German, Nicolaus is pronounced [ˈnɪkolaʊ̯s].

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 1,141 boys were recorded with the name Nicolaus between 1971 and 2023. Its highest annual count was 47 in 1998; its best national rank was #1,850 in 1983.

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 Nicolaus?

Nicolaus 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 368,000
9 of 3,314,783 births
Among boys only
1 in 190,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2023
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
255,294 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Nicolaus 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 255,294 children born in 2023 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Nicolaus. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Nicolauss were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Nicolaus was born before 1995 — so the typical Nicolaus is around 30 today.

Median birth year
1995
About 30 years old
Biggest decade
1990s
32.8% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
38.0%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
1,141
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1990s — 32.8% of all recorded uses (374).

Is Nicolaus 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 1998 (47)
Years since peak
27
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
27.7% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,850
1983

Spellings of Nicolaus

Nicolaus is not the most common spelling — Nicholas is, with 83.0% against Nicolaus's 0.10%.

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 Nicolaus is used

Across 1910–2025, Nicolaus was most concentrated in California — about 1 in 100,000 boys, against 1 in 238,858 across all states with data. It was least common in Texas (1 in —).

01 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in 100,000
  2. 2Florida1 in —
  3. 3Illinois1 in —
  4. 4Pennsylvania1 in —
  5. 5Texas1 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. Nicolaus has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Nicolaus around the world

Where Nicolaus 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
    2009–2009
    #2,692
    in 2009
  • South Australia
    1953–1953
    #334
    in 1953

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.

Nicolaus 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
#1,850
1983
Peak year
1998
47 that year
First recorded
1971
Last recorded
2023
All-time count
1,141
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Nicolaus

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

NicklausNicholausNickolausNickalausNicholaiNickolaiNicodemusNiccoloNichlausNicolaasNicolaiNicklasNicholesNicholosNicholusNicholisNicoloNicholiNicandroNickalasNicksonNikolausNichalosNicasio

Sibling names for Nicolaus

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 Nicolaus

Top names of 1998, Nicolaus's peak yearThe 1990s in fullOther names that peaked in 1983Boys' names starting with N