Nikolai
Masculine Russian form of the Greek name Nikolaos, meaning "victor of the people".
Name Census estimates that about 10,424 living Americans carry the first name Nikolai. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Nikolai today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Nikolai births was 2016 (639 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Nikolai. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Nikolai with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Nikolai is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 14 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
10K
~ 1 in 32,881 Americans
Peak year
2016
639 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
2024 SSA rank
#589
Tracked since 1960
Census
Nikolai in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 8,213 people with the first name Nikolai, which placed it at #2,816 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#2,816
National first-name rank
People counted
8.2K
8,213 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
64.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Nikolai
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Nikolai is White at 64.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (20.9%) and Two or More Races (7.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Nikolai described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Nikolai at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White64.6% · 5,307
- Hispanic or Latino20.9% · 1,720
- Two or more races7.6% · 627
- Black or African American3.4% · 281
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.4% · 197
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 81
Popularity
Nikolai: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Nikolai from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 5,058 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Nikolai remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Nikolai by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Nikolai during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Nikolais live
The SSA's state-level files cover 42 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Nikolai, while Mississippi, South Dakota, Maine recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 202 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Nikolai
The given name Nikolai has its origins in the Greek language and culture. It is derived from the Greek word "nikolaos," which is a combination of the words "niko" meaning "victory" and "laos" meaning "people." The name can be translated to mean "victory of the people" or "victor of the people."
The name Nikolai gained widespread popularity due to its association with Saint Nicholas, a 4th-century Christian saint who was revered for his generosity and kindness towards children and the less fortunate. Saint Nicholas, also known as Nicholas of Myra, was a bishop in the ancient Greek city of Myra, located in modern-day Turkey.
The earliest recorded use of the name Nikolai can be traced back to the Byzantine Empire, where it was commonly used among Eastern Orthodox Christians. The name later spread to other parts of Europe and became popular in Russia, where it was adopted as a variant of the Greek name Nikolaos.
One of the earliest and most notable individuals with the name Nikolai was Nikolai Myshkin, the protagonist of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's novel "The Idiot," published in 1868. Myshkin was portrayed as a kind and gentle soul, embodying the qualities associated with Saint Nicholas.
Another famous Nikolai was Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, a Russian composer who lived from 1844 to 1908. He is renowned for his orchestral works, including the symphonic suite "Scheherazade" and the opera "The Golden Cockerel."
Nikolai Gogol, a Ukrainian-born Russian novelist and playwright (1809-1852), is widely regarded as one of the greatest writers of the 19th century. His works, such as "Dead Souls" and "The Overcoat," satirized the societal ills of Imperial Russia.
Nikolai Lobachevsky, a Russian mathematician (1792-1856), is celebrated for his pioneering work in non-Euclidean geometry, which laid the foundations for modern geometry and influenced the development of Einstein's theory of relativity.
Nikolai Yezhov, a Soviet politician and head of the NKVD (the Soviet secret police) from 1936 to 1938, played a prominent role in the Great Purge, a period of political repression and mass executions under Joseph Stalin's regime.
These are just a few examples of notable individuals throughout history who bore the name Nikolai, reflecting its rich cultural heritage and significance across various fields and eras.
People
Nikolai + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Nikolai as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with N
Other first names starting with N with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Nikolai: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Nikolai?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 10,424 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Nikolai going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 32,881 US residents.
Is Nikolai a common name?
We classify Nikolai as "Uncommon". It ranks above 97.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 10,550 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Nikolai most popular?
The single biggest year for Nikolai was 2016, when 639 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Nikolai is about 14 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Nikolai in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 8,213 people with the name Nikolai, or 2.72 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,816 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Nikolai in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Nikolai?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Nikolai appears almost entirely male. Of the 8,218 people counted with this name, 99.4% were male and only a very small share were female. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Nikolai?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Nikolai is White at 64.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (20.9%) and Two or More Races (7.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Nikolai most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Nikolai in the 2020 Census, accounting for 64.6% (5,307 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Nikolai in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Nikolai a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Nikolai in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Nikolai still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Nikolai in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Nikolai can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are called Nikolai?
Find out how many people share the name Nikolai on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.