Nikos
A masculine name of Greek origin meaning "victorious".
Name Census estimates that about 844 living Americans carry the first name Nikos. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Nikos today is around 27 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Nikos births was 2009 (28 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Nikos. 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 Nikos with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
844
~ 1 in 406,107 Americans
Peak year
2009
28 babies that year
Average age
27
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,352
Tracked since 1962
Census
Nikos in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 830 people with the first name Nikos, which placed it at #14,239 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
#14,239
National first-name rank
People counted
830
830 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
73.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Nikos
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Nikos is White at 73.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (12.9%) and Two or More Races (6.3%). 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 Nikos 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 Nikos at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White73.1% · 607
- Hispanic or Latino12.9% · 107
- Two or more races6.3% · 52
- Black or African American4.9% · 41
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.2% · 18
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 5
Popularity
Nikos: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Nikos from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 195 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Nikos remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Nikos 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 Nikos during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Nikos' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. California, New York, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Nikos, while Pennsylvania, New York, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 19 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Nikos
Nikos is a Greek given name derived from the word "νικη" (nikē), meaning "victory" in Ancient Greek. The name has its roots in Greek mythology and culture, and dates back to antiquity.
The name was popular in ancient Greece, where it was often given to boys born after a military victory or triumph. It was a way to celebrate and commemorate the success of the Greek city-states in battles or wars.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Nikos can be found in the works of ancient Greek historians and philosophers, such as Herodotus and Plato. It was a common name among prominent figures in Greek society, including philosophers, statesmen, and military leaders.
In the 5th century BC, Nikos of Abdera was a Greek philosopher and pupil of Democritus, known for his work on natural philosophy and ethics. Another notable figure was Nikos of Damascus, a Greek historian and philosopher who lived in the 1st century BC and served as a tutor to the children of Mark Antony and Cleopatra.
During the Byzantine Empire, the name continued to be widely used, often associated with military prowess and strength. Saint Nikos the Wonderworker, also known as Saint Nicholas, was a 4th-century Christian saint and Greek bishop of Myra, renowned for his generosity and miracles.
In the modern era, several prominent individuals have borne the name Nikos, including Nikos Kazantzakis (1883-1957), a Greek writer and philosopher best known for his novels "Zorba the Greek" and "The Last Temptation of Christ," and Nikos Engonopoulos (1907-1985), a Greek poet and artist associated with the Surrealist movement.
Nikos Stavrolakis (1939-2023) was a renowned Greek sculptor and artist, while Nikos Gatzos (1923-2008) was a celebrated Greek composer and lyricist who composed numerous popular songs and film scores.
People
Nikos + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Nikos 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
Nikos: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Nikos?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 844 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Nikos 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 406,107 US residents.
Is Nikos a common name?
We classify Nikos as "Very Rare". It ranks above 89% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 869 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Nikos most popular?
The single biggest year for Nikos was 2009, when 28 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Nikos is about 27 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Nikos in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 830 people with the name Nikos, or 0.27 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #14,239 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 Nikos 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 Nikos?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Nikos appears almost entirely male. Of the 830 people counted with this name, 100.0% 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 Nikos?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Nikos is White at 73.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (12.9%) and Two or More Races (6.3%). 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 Nikos most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Nikos in the 2020 Census, accounting for 73.1% (607 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 Nikos in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Nikos a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Nikos 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 Nikos still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Nikos 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 Nikos 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 common is the name Nikos?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.