Nicholas
given name · Latin script
Meaning: from the male personal name Nicholas, ultimately from Greek Nikolaas, literally ‘victory-people’
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/nɪkləs/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Nicholas is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the United States than in any other country. In Uruguay it is the most common given name.
- USUnited States1 in 468(measured from records)
- GRGreece1 in 37as Νικόλαος
- CYCyprus1 in 84as Νικολας
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). Where a country counts another spelling of the name rather than Nicholas itself, the figure is that spelling’s, and it is named. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- United States (measured from records)
- #127 (measured from records)
- 6 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 639 (measured from records)
- 1 in 468 (inferred from the name graph)
711,305 people, 2020
of 15M given names
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
United States
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
Locally spelled Nicolas in FR France, BR Brazil, UY Uruguay, Νικολαος in GR Greece, Nicola in CZ Czechia and Nikolaos in CY Cyprus.
Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
from the male personal name Nicholas, ultimately from Greek Nikolaas, literally ‘victory-people’
Sources 1
- Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history]
Attested across 4 languages in the etymology graph.
Often considered alongside
Names that people choosing a name often weigh against Nicholas, most often first. They share a style rather than an origin.
From the names suggested together in public name-advice forums, in English. A list of what people consider, not a measure of how common any name is.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Nicholas 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.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | #108 | 711,305 | 1 in 468 | 710K | Nicholas | 639 |
| FR France | — | ≈380,000 est. | ≈1 in 179 | 406K | Nicolas | 127 |
| BR Brazil | #316 | 310,593as Nicolas | 1 in 682 | 311K | Nicolas | 197 |
| GR Greece | #25 | 290,329as Νικόλαος | 1 in 37 | 570K | Νικολαος | 210 |
| IT Italy | #202 | ≈200,000 est. | ≈1 in 318 | 681 | Nicholas | 190 |
| CZ Czechia | #739 | 75,992as Nikola | 1 in 141 | 76K | Nicola | 63 |
| HR Croatia | — | 32,304as Nikola | 1 in 131 | 32K | — | 2 |
| CY Cyprus | #24 | 15,068as Νικολας | 1 in 84 | 15K | Nikolaos | 75 |
| UY Uruguay | #1 | ≈13,000 est. | ≈1 in 263 | 1 | Nicolas | 121 |
711,305 people counted by Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex, 2020. 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; ELSTAT — population given names; According to a survey conducted by the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT), the most popular male and female names i; INSEE — Fichier des prénoms (1900–2024); IBGE — names by decade (Kaggle mirror); Montevideo Open Data — Nombres por año y sexo (1940–2012); MVČR — living population register 2017; ISTAT — Contanomi newborn per-name series (1999–2024, JSONP backend); DZS — Imena i prezimena (per-token lookup form); CYSTAT — Name frequency (2011 Population Census). 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 recorded senses(measured from records)
Nicholas 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 English, from Latin Nicolaus, Greek Nikolaos “victory-people”; first attested Nicolaus 1086 DB
as a nameA Dictionary of English Surnames
In Irish, Greek name meaning ‘victory people’; popular in Ireland since the Middle Ages.
as a nameIrish first names
In English, Nikolaos, from nikan to conquer + laos people). Forms with -ch- are the result of hypercorrection (cf. Anthony). Vars.: Ger.: Niederer (comp.); Niederst (sup.); Niedermann. Jewish: Niederman 451 Niedzielski Nisbit
as a nameThe Oxford Names Companion - The definitive guide to Surnames, First Names, and Place Names of the British Isles
In English, A male given name from Ancient Greek, notably born by St. Nicholas of Myre, on whom Father Christmas is based.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In Swedish, Nicholas är den engelska, och Nicolas den franska formen av → Nikolaus. Båda formerna har blivit populära de senaste årtiondena. Möjligen har namngivningen av den svenske prins Nicolas (f. 2015) spelat in. Nikolas är en förtyskning av den franska formen. I den finlandssvenska almanackan 6 december.
as a nameFörnamn i Sverige. Kortfattat namnlexikon
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)
- Louis Mountbattenb. 1900GBnot in their usual nameBritish statesman and naval officer (1900-1979)
- Nicholas Wintonb. 1909GBBritish stockbroker who saved 669 Jewish children during 1938–39 (1909–2015)
- Richard Bransonb. 1950GBnot in their usual nameBritish business magnate
- Nick Parkb. 1958GBnot in their usual nameBritish animator and filmmaker (born 1958)
- Nicholas Sparksb. 1965USAmerican writer and novelist
- Adrien Brodyb. 1973USnot in their usual nameAmerican actor
- Nick Vujicicb. 1982AUnot in their usual nameAustralian evangelist and motivational speaker
- Nicholas Houltb. 1989GBEnglish actor (born 1989)
- Nick Jonasb. 1992USnot in their usual nameAmerican singer, actor and musician
- Nicholas Galitzineb. 1994GBBritish actor (born 1994)
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)
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 121 sources across 62 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 710K | #49 |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — names by decade (Kaggle mirror) | 2022 | 9.9K | — |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname) | — | 9.9K | #1,722 |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Nomes (census name API) | — | 5K | #3,369 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 3.1K | — |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname) | 2020 | 1K | — |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 935 | #49 |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des prénoms (1900–2024) | 2023 | 670 | #2,884 |
| IT Italy | ISTAT — Contanomi newborn per-name series (1999–2024, JSONP backend) | 2024 | 472 | #73 |
| CZ Czechia | MVČR — living population register 2017 | — | 304 | #792 |
| CZ Czechia | naše jména — 2016 MVČR snapshot | — | 152 | #876 |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname) | — | 75 | #1,722 |
Reference works 6
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
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
- What are other forms of the name Nicholas?
- In the etymology graph, Nicolas, Mykola and Klaus are forms of the same name in other languages; Nick and Nic are recorded short or pet forms.
- Is Nicholas a male or female name?
- Nicholas 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 Nicholas mean, and where does it come from?
- from the male personal name Nicholas, ultimately from Greek Nikolaas, literally ‘victory-people’ Recorded by Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history].
- How do you pronounce Nicholas?
- A machine transcription gives /nɪkləs/ (IPA) for English.
- In which country does Nicholas have the most bearers?
- In the United States, the national register counted about 711 thousand people named Nicholas, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled nicholas.
- Where is Nicholas most common?
- Nicholas is densest in the United States, where the national register counts about 1 in 468 people carrying it.
- How common is the name Nicholas?
- In the United States, the national register counted 711,305 people named Nicholas in 2020, about 1 in 468 residents.
- How common is Nicholas compared with other names?
- In the United States, Nicholas is the 108th most common given name of 2,815,431 given names recorded there.
What do you want to know about Nicholas?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/nicholasThe 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, “Nicholas” — the 108th most common given name in United States. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.