Nikolaev
surname · Latin script
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/nɪkoʊɫəɛv/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Nikolaev is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Russia than in any other country. In Bulgaria it is the 42nd most common surname.
- BGBulgaria≈1 in 3K(inferred from the name graph)
- RURussia≈1 in 48K
- FIFinland1 in 40K
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 Nikolaev 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.
- Russia (inferred from the name graph)
- 3 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 99 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 3.0K (inferred from the name graph)
≈3,000 people, est.
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
Bulgaria, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
Locally spelled Николаев in KZ Kazakhstan, RU Russia.
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)
우크라이나 남부에 있는 항구 도시.
Sources 1
- 국립국어원 외래어 표기 용례 자료 (NIKL loanword/foreign-name transcription examples)
Attested across 8 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Nikolaev 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 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RU Russia | — | ≈3,000 est. | ≈1 in 48K | listed | Николаев | 51 |
| BG Bulgaria | #42 | ≈2,300 est. | ≈1 in 3K | — | Nikolaev | 99 |
| ES Spain | — | 624 | 1 in 80K | 624 | Nikolaev | 38 |
| EE Estonia | — | 456as Nikolajev | 1 in 2.7K | 456 | Nikolaev | 6 |
| KZ Kazakhstan | — | 435as Николаев | 1 in 44K | 3.5K | Николаев | 8 |
| FI Finland | — | 141 | 1 in 40K | 141 | — | 2 |
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: 2021 National Population Census — popular surnames of Kazakhs, by region of residence; 2021 National Population Census — popular surnames of Russians, by region of residence; the russian-surnames-unbegaun-1972 register; INE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos); INE — Apellidos más frecuentes (Padrón Municipal); Statistics Estonia — Ees- ja perekonnanimed (Population Register); DVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup). 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)
- Leonid Nikolayevb. 1878UAnot in their usual nameRussian musician (1878–1942)
- Leonid Nikolaevb. 1904RUAssassin of Sergei Kirov (1904–1934)
- Bogomil Raynovb. 1919BGnot in their usual nameBulgarian writer (1919-2007)
- Andriyan Nikolayevb. 1929RUnot in their usual nameSoviet cosmonaut
- Mikhail Nikolayevb. 1937RUnot in their usual nameRussian politician (1937-2023)
- Petr Nikolaevb. 1957CZCzech-French film director and screenwriter
- Igor Yuryevich Nikolayevb. 1960RUnot in their usual nameRussian musician
- Valery Nikolaevb. 1965RURussian actor
- Aysen Nikolayevb. 1972RUnot in their usual nameRussian politician
- Aleksey Nikolaevb. 1979RUUzbekistani association football 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)
Attested in 29 sources across 17 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ES Spain | INE — Apellidos más frecuentes (Padrón Municipal) | — | 624 | #6,677 |
| ES Spain | INE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos) | — | 624 | #6,672 |
| FI Finland | DVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup) | — | 141 | #9,805 |
| FI Finland | DVV — Sukunimitilasto (Finnish surnames register) | — | 39 | — |
| RU Russia | Russian Surnames (Unbegaun, 1972) | — | — | — |
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
- How do you pronounce Nikolaev?
- A machine transcription gives /nɪkoʊɫəɛv/ (IPA) for Bulgarian.
- In which country does Nikolaev have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 3.0 thousand people named Nikolaev in Russia, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled николаев.
- How common is the name Nikolaev?
- In Spain, the national register counted 624 people named Nikolaev, about 1 in 80 thousand residents.
- How common is Nikolaev compared with other names?
- In Bulgaria, Nikolaev is the 42nd most common surname of 67,606 surnames recorded there.
What do you want to know about Nikolaev?
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/nikolaevThe 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, “Nikolaev” — the 42nd most common surname in Bulgaria. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.