Nicholas
The boy's name Nicholas has been in the national records since 1880, with 929,199 births to its name. In 2025 it ranked 112th. About 843,000 Nicholases are alive in the United States today, and half of them are over 31.
Popularity, 1880–2025
girls named Nicholas boys named Nicholas
By the numbers
- Total US births
- 929,199
- Estimated living today
- 843,000
- Median age today
- 31
- Peak year
- 1995
- Best rank
- 7th
- Rank in 2025
- 112th
- First recorded
- 1880
- Girls / boys
- 3,152 / 926,047
How old the living Nicholases are
born that year still alive today
Of the 929,199 babies given the name since 1880, about 843,000 are alive — 91 in every hundred. Roughly 110,000 of them are children and 26,000 are 65 or over. The dotted line is the median: half were born before 1994 and half after.
An estimate, not a count. SSA births aged forward through SSA cohort life tables, which know nothing about who left the country or arrived in it — so for a name that mostly came to America rather than being born in it, this is a floor rather than a figure. Where you fall among living Americans.
Where the name comes from
Origin Ancient Greek
From Middle English Nicholas, from Old French Nicholas, from Latin Nīcolāus, from Ancient Greek Νικόλαος.
Etymology from Wiktionary, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Notable Nicholass
- Nicholas II of Russia (1868–1918)14th and last Emperor of Russia
- Nicholas I of Russia (1796–1855)The 11th Emperor of Russia, 1825–1855 (lived 1796-1855)
- Nicholas V (1397–1455)pope of the Catholic Church from 1447 to 1455
- Nicholas of Cusa (1401–1464)German philosopher
- Nicholas Hoult (born 1989)English actor
- Nicholas I (820–867)pope
- Nicholas II (990–1061)pope
- Nicholas III (1215–1280)Pope from 1277 to 1280
People named Nicholas with articles in the most Wikipedia languages. Data from Wikidata (CC0).
Where Nicholas is most common
Relative to how many babies each state records, Nicholas is most concentrated in New Hampshire (1.8×), Connecticut (1.7×), Rhode Island (1.7×), New Jersey (1.6×).
Total births recorded in each state since 1910. Browse names by state.
Names of 1995
The most popular boys’ names the year Nicholas peaked:
Nicholas elsewhere
| Country | Spelling | Births | Best rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Italy boys | Nicholas | 16,686 | — |
| England and Wales boys | Nicholas | 16,217 | 52nd |
| New Zealand boys | Nicholas | 13,132 | 10th |
| Scotland boys | Nicholas | 4,362 | 46th |
| Ireland boys | Nicholas | 3,608 | 77th |
| Norway boys | Nicholas | 1,491 | 124th |
| Sweden boys | Nicholas | 1,287 | 72nd |
| France boys | Nicholas | 805 | 717th |
| Poland boys | Nicholas | 706 birth registrations | 160th |
| Belgium boys | Nicholas | 398 | 362nd |
| Switzerland boys | Nicholas | 339 | 381st |
| Northern Ireland boys | Nicholas | 289 | 104th |
Counts come from each country's own records and are not comparable with the US figures above, which cover different years and a different definition of a recorded name. Where a country writes the name several ways, the spellings are added together and the most common is shown. A row marked name registrations is counting something else: Portugal ranks each of a child's two given names separately, so a girl registered Maria Leonor is in both the Maria row and the Leonor row, and that figure is not a number of children.
Nicholas: births by region
| Region | Country | Spelling | Births | Share of the region | Best rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| German boys | Switzerland | Nicholas | 173 | 0.014% | 358th |
| French boys | Switzerland | Nicholas | 66 | 0.015% | 249th |
| Italian boys | Switzerland | Nicholas | 100 | 0.153% | 34th |
Parts of a country counted above, not extra births. The share is what makes the regions comparable: they differ in size by a factor of three hundred.
By canton, Nicholas is most concentrated in Ticino, where 0.16% of children were given it – 99 of them.
Nicholas: rank by region
In 2025, Nicholas was given 5 times or more in 1 region of Belgium.
| Region | Spelling | Place | Children |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flanders | Nicholas | 914 | 5 |
In 2024, Nicholas was among the 10 most common names in 1 region of Italy.
| Region | Spelling | Place | Children |
|---|---|---|---|
| Valle d'Aosta/Vallée d'Aoste | Nicholas | 7 | 2 |
In 2025, Nicholas was given 2 times or more in 1 region of Poland.
| Region | Spelling | Place | Children |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mazowieckie | Nicholas | 312 | 2 |
In 2019, with the country taken in 11 areas rather than 3, Nicholas appears in the lists for Province of Flemish Brabant (178th).
Each of these is the top of a list the statistics office cut off somewhere – Belgium below 5 children, Italy after 10 names, Poland below 2 children – and published nothing after. So a region missing here is one where the name fell outside what was published, not one where it went unused. Places are shared where names tie, and the further down a list a place is, the more names can share it.
Nicholas by city
| City | Years | Births | Best rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Berlin boys | 2017–2023 | 6 | 451st |
One city over a few years, so these are much smaller numbers than the national ones above and not comparable with them.
Nicholas among the living
How many people each country's register counts under the name, rather than how many were given it in any one year. Each register was read on one date, and they are not the same date.
| Country | Spelling | First forename | Any forename |
|---|---|---|---|
| Finland boys | Nicholas | 622 | 1,196 |
A count of people on a register – Finland on 4 August 2026 – and not of births, so it cannot be compared with the figures above. Names with very few bearers are withheld, and a dash in the first-forename column means the register would not say rather than that nobody goes by it.
Where Nicholas lives in Spain
Not a count of births but of people: 620 men called Nicholas were living in Spain on 1 January 2025, of every age, born in any year. Where they live is not spread evenly.
Men: the provinces where it is densest
| Province | Spelling | People | Per thousand | Place there |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Balears, Illes | Nicholas | 47 | 0.075 | 880 |
| Málaga | Nicholas | 64 | 0.073 | 812 |
| Palmas, Las | Nicholas | 35 | 0.060 | 1,359 |
| Alicante/Alacant | Nicholas | 56 | 0.056 | 1,197 |
| Santa Cruz de Tenerife | Nicholas | 26 | 0.049 | 1,624 |
| Girona | Nicholas | 17 | 0.041 | 1,445 |
Listed in 24 of Spain's 52 provinces. In the other 28 it is either held by fewer than 5 people – the point below which the source withholds a name – or it fell past the 5,000 names the source will print for one province. Neither means nobody there is called it. The rate is the source's own, not a share worked out here.
Related names
Nicholas against another name
Two names on one chart, with the year one overtook the other.
Try it on yourself
Source: US Social Security Administration, national and state baby-name files, 1880–2025. Counts include only births registered with the SSA, and names with fewer than five births in a year are not published. The living estimate applies SSA cohort life tables to those births; it counts people born in the United States, so it misses anyone who arrived later and anyone who has left.