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Nikolay

#6,338 in 2025Boys' name

Form of Nicholas

Nikolay has been given to 507 babies in the U.S. since 1992. In 2025 it ranked #6,338 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2010, with 32 recorded.

Babies named Nikolay, 2025

1 in 237,000

Nikolay over time, 1880–2025

Boys
01020304018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Nikolay: meaning, origin, and history

Form of Nicholas

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Nikolay means

Nikolay is a form of Nicholas.

Meaning behind the documented name family

The name developed through Nikolay → 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, 507 boys were recorded with the name Nikolay between 1992 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 32 in 2010; its best national rank was #3,421 in 2010.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #5,396 in 2020 to #6,338 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #3,956 in 2015 to #6,338 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 Nikolay?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 237,000
14 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 122,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#6,338
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
164,137 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Nikolay 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 164,137 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Nikolay. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Nikolays were born

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

Median birth year
2012
About 13 years old
Biggest decade
2010s
43.2% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
91.1%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
507
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2010s — 43.2% of all recorded uses (219).

Is Nikolay 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
−1,342
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
−942
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−2,382
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.52×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
43.8%
Peak was 2010 (32)
Years since peak
15
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
36.1% average annual change
Best rank ever
#3,421
2010

Spellings of Nikolay

Nikolay is not the most common spelling — Nicolas is, with 52.6% against Nikolay's 0.26%.

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 Nikolay is used

Across 1910–2025, Nikolay was most concentrated in California — about 1 in — boys, against 1 in 842,871 across all states with data. It was least common in Washington (1 in —).

00 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in —
  2. 2Florida1 in —
  3. 3Texas1 in —
  4. 4Washington1 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. Nikolay has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Nikolay around the world

Where Nikolay 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
    2008–2025
    #2,952
    in 2025
  • France
    2012–2022
    #4,525
    in 2022
  • Norway
    1880–2019
    #446
    in 2019
  • Canada
    1996–2021
    #2,619
    in 2021
  • South Australia
    1959–2003
    #588
    in 2003

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

Nikolay by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#6,338
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 942
Best rank ever
#3,421
2010
Peak year
2010
32 that year
First recorded
1992
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
507
Count in 2025
14

Names similar to Nikolay

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

NikkolasNikodemNikoliNiklausNikolozFindlayNiklasNikosNikolosNikolaosNikolusNikolausNikolajNikitaMacaulayNikolaNikolisNikaiNikanFinlayNikalasNikolaiNikhilBarclay

Sibling names for Nikolay

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 Nikolay

Top names of 2010, Nikolay's peak yearThe 2010s in fullOther names that peaked in 2010Boys' names starting with NNicholas Variations & Nicknames