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Nik

#10,377 in 2025Boys' name

Short form of Nikolas

Nik has been given to 217 babies in the U.S. since 1964. In 2025 it ranked #10,377 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2005, with 9 recorded.

Babies named Nik, 2025

1 in 474,000

Nik over time, 1880–2025

Boys
02.557.51018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Nik: meaning, origin, and history

Short form of Nikolas

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Nik means

Nik is a short form of Nikolas.

Origin, language, and formation

Nik is used in English and Slovene.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Nikolas and Nick.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Slovene, Nik is pronounced /nìːk/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 217 boys were recorded with the name Nik between 1964 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 9 in 2005; its best national rank was #4,300 in 1972.

Over 10 years its rank fell, from #9,315 in 2015 to #10,377 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 Nik?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 474,000
7 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 244,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#10,377
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
328,272 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Nik 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 328,272 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Nik. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Niks were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Nik was born before 2003 — so the typical Nik is around 22 today.

Median birth year
2003
About 22 years old
Biggest decade
2000s
24.9% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
55.3%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
217
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2000s — 24.9% of all recorded uses (54).

Is Nik 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
+3,276
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
−1,062
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.88×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
77.8%
Peak was 2005 (9)
Years since peak
20
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
27.0% average annual change
Best rank ever
#4,300
1972

Where Nik is used

Across 1910–2025, Nik was most concentrated in California — about 1 in — boys, against 1 in 3,486,540 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. Nik has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Nik around the world

Where Nik 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
    1996–2025
    #4,275
    in 2025
  • Canada
    2024–2024
    #3,231
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1968–1974
    #320
    in 1974

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.

Nik by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#10,377
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
New entry
Best rank ever
#4,300
1972
Peak year
2005
9 that year
First recorded
1964
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
217
Count in 2025
7

Names similar to Nik

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

NikaiNikanNikiNikeAnikNikiaNikosNikodemNikoaNikoliNikolozNikolayNikeshNikashNikkiNikolosNiklasNikolusAarnikNikkoNikolajNikkolasArnikNikil

Sibling names for Nik

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 Nik

Top names of 2005, Nik's peak yearThe 2000s in fullOther names that peaked in 1972Boys' names starting with NSlovenian Boy NamesSlovenian Names