Niculescu
surname · Latin script
(measured from records)Officially recorded in 12 countries · latest register: BFS, 2024
/nikuˈlesku/(recorded in a dictionary) Romanian · from Wiktionary
Niculescu is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Romania than in any other country. Recorded meaning: Nicu, a variant of Nicolae + -escu (surname ending). The -l- is from analysing Nicu as a definite noun with the ending -ul.
- RORomania≈1 in 2.2K(inferred from the name graph)
- ITItaly≈1 in 190Kfew records
- ESSpain1 in 251K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). Countries with no figure are shown too: flat where a national register lists the name without counting it, hatched where only our records hold it. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- Romania (inferred from the name graph)
- Record sources
- 125 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 2.2K (inferred from the name graph)
≈8,700 people, est.
corpus datasets behind its best-documented spelling
strongest: highest-authority source
Romania, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin
(measured from records)Nicu, a variant of Nicolae + -escu (surname ending). The -l- is from analysing Nicu as a definite noun with the ending -ul.
Cited for this meaning 1
Attested across 3 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world
(measured from records)Niculescu 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 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RO Romania | #139 | ≈8,700 est. | ≈1 in 2.2K | — | Niculescu | 94 |
| IT Italy | — | ≈310 est. | ≈1 in 192K | — | Niculescu | 20 |
| ES Spain | — | 199 | 1 in 251K | 199 | Niculescu | 22 |
| US United States | — | 167 | 1 in 2M | 183 | Niculescu | 125 |
| FR France | — | ≈120 est. | ≈1 in 589K | — | Niculescu | 1 |
| SE Sweden | — | 31 | 1 in 329K | 31 | Niculescu | 12 |
| CH Switzerland | — | 30 | 1 in 280K | 30 | — | 6 |
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 — Surname Frequency 2010; Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020; INE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos); INE — Apellidos más frecuentes (Padrón Municipal); Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population); 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).
Notable people with this name
(measured from records)- Angelo Niculescub. 1921RORomanian footballer and manager (1921-2015)
- Paul Niculescu-Mizilb. 1923RORomanian politician (1923-2008)
- Margareta Niculescub. 1926FRRomanian theatre director and puppeteer (1926–2018)
- Ștefan Niculescub. 1927RORomanian composer (1927–2008)
- Elena Mărgăritb. 1936ROnot in their usual namegymnast
- Florin Niculescub. 1967RORomanian musician
- Ovidiu Niculescub. 1974RORomanian actor
- Radu Niculescub. 1975RORomanian footballer (born 1975)
- Claudiu Niculescub. 1976RORomanian football player and manager
- Monica Niculescub. 1987RORomanian tennis player
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)Evidence
(measured from records)20 registers and reference works attest this spelling, across 12 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ES Spain | INE — Apellidos más frecuentes (Padrón Municipal) | — | 199 | #16,656 |
| ES Spain | INE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos) | — | 199 | #16,590 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 183 | #104,276 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 167 | #106,570 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 106 | #143,847 |
| SE Sweden | Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population) | — | 31 | #18,143 |
| CH Switzerland | BFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames) | 2024 | 30 | #27,377 |
| US United States | wru Name Dictionary — US surnames, Census 2010 subset (Khanna et al.) | — | — | — |
Reference works 3
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- 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 does the name Niculescu mean, and where does it come from?
- Nicu, a variant of Nicolae + -escu (surname ending). The -l- is from analysing Nicu as a definite noun with the ending -ul. Recorded by Wiktionary.
- How do you pronounce Niculescu?
- In Romanian /nikuˈlesku/ (Wiktionary).
- In which country does Niculescu have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 8.7 thousand people named Niculescu in Romania, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled niculescu.
- How common is the name Niculescu?
- In Spain, the national register counted 199 people named Niculescu, about 1 in 251 thousand residents.
- How common is Niculescu compared with other names?
- In Romania, Niculescu is the 139th most common surname of 78,699 surnames recorded there.
What do you want to know about Niculescu?
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/niculescuThe 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, “Niculescu” — the 139th most common surname in Romania. Data snapshot 2026-10-13.