Name Awesome

Nikolaus

#4,345 in 2025Boys' name

Victory of the people

Nikolaus has been given to 2,656 babies in the U.S. since 1955. In 2025 it ranked #4,345 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 1994, with 98 recorded.

Babies named Nikolaus, 2025

1 in 138,000

Nikolaus over time, 1880–2025

Boys
025507510018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Nikolaus: meaning, origin, and history

Victory of the people

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Nikolaus means

Nikolaus means “victory of the people”, associated with Nikólaos.

Origin, language, and formation

Nikolaus is used in Finnish, German and Swedish.

Nikolaus comes through Ancient Greek Νικόλαος.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Nicholas.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Finnish, Nikolaus is pronounced /ˈnikolɑus/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 2,656 boys were recorded with the name Nikolaus between 1955 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 98 in 1994; its best national rank was #1,086 in 1980.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #4,652 in 2020 to #4,345 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #4,503 in 2015 to #4,345 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 Nikolaus?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 138,000
24 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 71,200
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#4,345
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
95,747 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Nikolaus 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 95,747 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Nikolaus. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Nikolauss were born

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

Median birth year
1995
About 30 years old
Biggest decade
1990s
31.3% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
34.3%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
2,656
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1990s — 31.3% of all recorded uses (830).

Is Nikolaus 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
−682
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
+307
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
+158
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
1.09×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
24.5%
Peak was 1994 (98)
Years since peak
31
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
34.7% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,086
1980

Spellings of Nikolaus

Nikolaus is not the most common spelling — Nicolas is, with 51.0% against Nikolaus's 1.3%.

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 Nikolaus is used

Across 1910–2025, Nikolaus was most concentrated in California — about 1 in 50,000 boys, against 1 in 150,924 across all states with data. It was least common in Virginia (1 in —).

02 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in 50,000
  2. 2Arizona1 in 100,000
  3. 3Florida1 in 100,000
  4. 4Michigan1 in 100,000
  5. 5Minnesota1 in 100,000
  6. 6Pennsylvania1 in 100,000
  7. 7Texas1 in 100,000
  8. 8Washington1 in 100,000

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

Nikolaus around the world

Where Nikolaus 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
    1998–2005
    #3,849
    in 2005
  • Canada
    1991–2015
    #2,735
    in 2015
  • South Australia
    1982–2012
    #771
    in 2012

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.

Notable people named Nikolaus

People whose public names include Nikolaus, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Nikolaus in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Nikolaus. Linked forms have their own page here.

NikoNilsNielsNiiloNikosMykolaNicolaeNicolasNicolauNikolajNikolasNikolayNicholasNicolaasNicolausNicolinoNikolaosKlasKlusKläsKleesKloseClesseMiklós

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Nikolaus by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#4,345
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 307
Best rank ever
#1,086
1980
Peak year
1994
98 that year
First recorded
1955
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
2,656
Count in 2025
24

Names similar to Nikolaus

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

NiklausNikolaosNicklausNikitaNikkolasNikolaNiklasNikolaiNicholausNikhilNikolayNikkoNikoliNikolasNicolausNikosNikodemNickolausNikolozKlausNikholasNikkolausNikolosNikki

Names with a curve like Nikolaus

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Nikolaus, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

DontayJovonTerellRashardRashaunRashaadTavarisJohnmichaelDustynJeronJoshuahBrandin

Sibling names for Nikolaus

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 Nikolaus

Top names of 1994, Nikolaus's peak yearThe 1990s in fullOther names that peaked in 1980Boys' names starting with NNicholas Variations & Nicknames