Klaus

given name · Latin script

Meaning: Short German form of Nikolaus/Nicolas; 'victory of the people'

Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise

/klaʊ̯s/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated

Klaus is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Germany than in any other country, where it is the 14th most common given name.

rarermore common
  • DEGermany≈1 in 139(inferred from the name graph)
  • ATAustria≈1 in 474
  • CHSwitzerland≈1 in 2.5K

carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.

Germany (inferred from the name graph)

≈580,000 people, est.

Sources
336 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

≈1 in 139 (inferred from the name graph)

Germany, est.

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Name dossier (print, CSV)

Meaning & origin(measured from records)

Short German form of Nikolaus/Nicolas; 'victory of the people'.

Sources 1

  • Dictionnaire généalogique des prénoms

Attested across 11 languages in the etymology graph.

Where in the world(measured from records)

Klaus counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.

Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.

Where Klaus is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
DE Germany#14≈580,000 est.≈1 in 139—Klaus304
CN China—≈29,000 est.≈1 in 49K—Klaus24
AT Austria#74≈19,000 est.≈1 in 4742.4KKlaus175
DK Denmark—8,7331 in 6728.7K—5
US United States—3,6061 in 92K5.3KKlaus336
CH Switzerland#194≈3,400 est.≈1 in 2.5K1.4KKlaus91
FI Finland—2,4891 in 2.2K4.4KKlaus54

Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.

Registers cited: Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000; Statistik Austria — STATatlas Vornamen WFS (per-name time series 1984–2024); Danmarks Statistik — Hvor mange hedder...? (living-population name counts); DVV — Etunimitilasto (Finnish given names register); DVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup); BFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.

Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).

Other names spelled this way(inferred from the name graph)

Klaus is also recorded as 6 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • Portuguese given name4 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Brazil, United States, Spain, Peru

    Languages: Portuguese, Spanish

    Also written Klaüs, Klaùs

  • Danish given name7 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Denmark, United States, Norway, Sweden

    Languages: Danish, Norwegian, Swedish

    Also written Klaüs, Klaūs

  • French given name5 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in France, United States, Belgium, Switzerland

    Also written Klaüs, Klãùs, Klãus

  • a separate name2 spellings in the group

    Also written Klâus

  • Russian surname31 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Croatia

    Languages: Russian, Ukrainian, Croatian

    Also written Клаус, Кляус, Claus, Klauß, Клаўс

  • Albanian given name4 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Albania, Italy, United States, France

    Also written Klãûs, Klauš, Klaus️

65 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses(measured from records)

Klaus is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

  • In German, from Nikolaus, Greek 'victory of the people'

    as a nameDeutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung

  • In German, from the personal name Klaus, a reduced form of Nikolaus (see Nicholas).

    as a nameDictionary of American Family Names

  • In German, a male given name from Nikolaus

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

  • In German, Patronym zu lat. Nicolaus / griech. Nikólaos 'Sieg' + 'Volk'; Karte zeigt Eintritt/Erhaltung von g, h, v, w in den Formen (z.B. Klawes, Klauw(e)s, Klagges).

    as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 2: Graphematik/Phonologie der Familiennamen II, Konsonantismus

  • In German, Patronymische Kurzform zu Nikolaus (griech. níkē „Sieg“ + laós „(Kriegs-)Volk“); zeigt K-Schreibung im Anlaut; 7622 Träger.

    as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 2: Graphematik/Phonologie der Familiennamen II, Konsonantismus

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Notable people with this name(measured from records)

1920194019601980Klaus Roth, b. 1925Claus von Amsberg, b. 1926Klaus Kinski, b. 1926Klaus Schwab, b. 1938Klaus von Klitzing, b. 1943Klaus Meine, b. 1948Klaus Allofs, b. 1956Klaus Augenthaler, b. 1957Klaus Johannis, b. 1959Klaus Ebner, b. 1964

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

How to address them(machine-generated)

InformalHallo Klaus,Hi Klaus, (English)

A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.

Evidence(measured from records)

Attested in 95 sources across 42 countries.

Official registers attesting Klaus
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
DK DenmarkDanmarks Statistik — Hvor mange hedder...? (living-population name counts)—8.7K#79
FI FinlandDVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup)—4.4K#340
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex20203.6K#4,934
FI FinlandDVV — Etunimitilasto (Finnish given names register)—2.5K—
AT AustriaStatistik Austria — STATatlas Vornamen WFS (per-name time series 1984–2024)20242.4K#713
US United StatesSSA — National Baby Names (1880–present)202563—
FI FinlandDVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup)—15#28,629
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex20204#4,934

Reference works 10

These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.

Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.

Frequently asked questions

Is Klaus a male or female name?
Klaus is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.
What does the name Klaus mean, and where does it come from?
Short German form of Nikolaus/Nicolas; 'victory of the people'. Recorded by Dictionnaire généalogique des prénoms.
What are other forms of the name Klaus?
In the etymology graph, Nicolas, Nicholas and Kay are forms of the same name in other languages; it is recorded as a short form of Nikolaus and Nicolaus.
How do you pronounce Klaus?
A machine transcription gives /klaʊ̯s/ (IPA) for German.
In which country does Klaus have the most bearers?
Mondonomo estimates about 577 thousand people named Klaus in Germany, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled klaus.
How common is the name Klaus?
In Denmark, the national register counted 8,733 people named Klaus, about 1 in 672 residents.
How common is Klaus compared with other names?
In Germany, Klaus is the 14th most common given name of 156,202 given names recorded there.

What do you want to know about Klaus?

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Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/klaus

The payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.

About this data

measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated

These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.

Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.

Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.

Cite this page Mondonomo, “Klaus” — the 14th most common given name in Germany. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how Klaus parses inside a full name →