Meaning not yet researched.
Nikola: US boys given the name each year, 1880 to 2025, from Social Security card applications. 102 in 2025. Its best rank was #1,239 in 2020.
US births per year · SSA card applications
Peaked at #1,239 in 2020; #1,651 in 2025. About 94% of babies named Nikola in 2025 were boys.
Baby name · US data 1880–2025
#1,651 for US boys in 2025. Its best year was 2020, at #1,239.
Hover, tap or use the arrow keys for any year. Years with fewer than five babies of a sex are not published by SSA and show as zero.
Nikola: US boys and girls given the name each year from 1880 to 2025. 102 boys in 2025. Peak: #1,239 in 2020 · most boys in one year: 151 (2020).
In 2025, 102 US boys were named Nikola, making it the 1,651st most common boys’ name of the year, down 56 places from #1,595 in 2024. That is 6 fewer than the 108 boys named Nikola in 2024. Its best rank for boys was #1,239, reached in 2020. That year also had the most boys given the name: 151. For comparison, it was #1,277 in 2015 and unranked in 1950.
In 2025, 7 US girls were named Nikola, making it the 12,820th most common girls’ name of the year, up 1,981 places from #14,801 in 2024. That is 1 more than the 6 girls named Nikola in 2024. Its best rank for girls was #3,247, reached in 1972. That year also had the most girls given the name: 20. For comparison, it was #7,511 in 2015 and unranked in 1950.
Social Security card records list Nikola in 66 years of the 146 from 1880 to 2025, starting in 1948 with 5 babies. In all, 4,102 US babies have been given the name, 16% of them girls and 84% boys. Its busiest decade was the 2010s, with 1,329 babies named Nikola.
Over the 10 years from 2016 to 2025, 1,305 US boys were named Nikola; the busiest of those years was 2020, with 151. In 2025 that was about 1 in 16,746 of the boys in SSA’s list for the year.
Among the states, Nikola ranked highest in Illinois in 2025, at #786 for boys there. It was not in the top 100 of any state. Related spellings in the SSA files include Nicholas (929,199 babies since 1880), Nicolas (101,764 babies since 1880), Nicola (8,090 babies since 1880) and Nikolaos (2,072 babies since 1880). Rarer spellings such as Nikaela and Nikaila are summarised on this page.
Meaning not yet researched.
We publish a meaning only with a cited source and a confidence label, and never generate one. Meanings are being researched for the most common names first.
Wikidata records this spelling as a given name in Bulgarian, Czech, Latvian and Slovene. That is where the name is used, not necessarily where it comes from.
Rare spellings summarised here: Nikaela (73), Nikaila (21).
Numbers are all-time US births. Links come from Wikidata’s “said to be the same as” (P460, CC0) and our spelling rule: at most two letters different, with the same sound pattern.
No nicknames listed for Nikola in the open dataset we use.
Source: carltonnorthern/nicknames (Apache-2.0).
US boys. Rank within each state. SSA leaves out states where fewer than five boys got the name, so 44 are not listed.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank 2025 | Rank 2015 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Illinois | 11 | #786 | #517 |
| Wisconsin | 5 | #854 | — |
| Ohio | 9 | #918 | — |
| Washington | 6 | #965 | — |
| Florida | 9 | #1,323 | #1,077 |
| California | 14 | #1,347 | #1,041 |
| New York | 6 | #1,692 | #1,136 |
Births and national rank for each year SSA lists the name, newest first.
| Year | Girls | Girls rank | Boys | Boys rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 7 | #12,820 | 102 | #1,651 |
| 2024 | 6 | #14,801 | 108 | #1,595 |
| 2023 | 6 | #14,681 | 126 | #1,446 |
| 2022 | 9 | #10,989 | 125 | #1,453 |
| 2021 | 12 | #8,852 | 147 | #1,295 |
| 2020 | 8 | #11,836 | 151 | #1,239 |
| 2019 | 18 | #6,630 | 134 | #1,344 |
| 2018 | 10 | #10,361 | 148 | #1,250 |
| 2017 | 9 | #11,371 | 132 | #1,357 |
| 2016 | 18 | #6,837 | 132 | #1,355 |
| 2015 | 16 | #7,511 | 141 | #1,277 |
| 2014 | 13 | #8,833 | 120 | #1,411 |
| 2013 | 11 | #10,070 | 110 | #1,490 |
| 2012 | 12 | #9,557 | 102 | #1,557 |
| 2011 | 9 | #11,908 | 97 | #1,597 |
| 2010 | 16 | #7,796 | 81 | #1,813 |
| 2009 | 11 | #10,471 | 81 | #1,837 |
| 2008 | 11 | #10,603 | 88 | #1,731 |
| 2007 | 11 | #10,628 | 65 | #2,107 |
| 2006 | 11 | #10,421 | 71 | #1,911 |
| 2005 | 16 | #7,407 | 61 | #2,053 |
| 2004 | 10 | #10,484 | 73 | #1,743 |
| 2003 | 5 | #17,646 | 54 | #2,096 |
| 2002 | 10 | #10,039 | 59 | #1,910 |
| 2001 | 10 | #9,904 | 76 | #1,584 |
| 2000 | 13 | #7,916 | 64 | #1,753 |
| 1999 | 9 | #10,094 | 56 | #1,796 |
| 1998 | 11 | #8,421 | 45 | #2,087 |
| 1997 | 8 | #10,519 | 38 | #2,251 |
| 1996 | 15 | #6,292 | 41 | #2,101 |
| 1995 | 10 | #8,548 | 40 | #2,088 |
| 1994 | 12 | #7,460 | 50 | #1,767 |
| 1993 | 10 | #8,512 | 46 | #1,844 |
| 1992 | 10 | #8,535 | 26 | #2,723 |
| 1991 | 10 | #8,415 | 29 | #2,450 |
| 1990 | 5 | #14,533 | 34 | #2,152 |
| 1989 | 9 | #8,532 | 27 | #2,451 |
| 1988 | — | — | 20 | #2,827 |
| 1987 | 11 | #6,638 | 16 | #3,163 |
| 1986 | — | — | 12 | #3,811 |
| 1985 | 7 | #8,986 | 22 | #2,409 |
| 1984 | 8 | #7,928 | 17 | #2,784 |
| 1983 | 12 | #5,710 | 13 | #3,369 |
| 1982 | 11 | #6,229 | 26 | #2,097 |
| 1981 | 7 | #8,747 | 19 | #2,549 |
| 1980 | 7 | #8,774 | 20 | #2,504 |
| 1979 | 12 | #5,639 | 19 | #2,527 |
| 1978 | 13 | #5,118 | 20 | #2,350 |
| 1977 | 16 | #4,362 | 19 | #2,433 |
| 1976 | 11 | #5,474 | 14 | #2,915 |
| 1975 | 18 | #3,726 | 18 | #2,420 |
| 1974 | 14 | #4,380 | 13 | #2,900 |
| 1973 | 19 | #3,429 | 7 | #4,377 |
| 1972 | 20 | #3,247 | 14 | #2,625 |
| 1971 | 13 | #4,468 | 9 | #3,576 |
| 1970 | 17 | #3,676 | 12 | #2,836 |
| 1969 | 9 | #5,335 | 8 | #3,504 |
| 1968 | 5 | #7,831 | 6 | #4,000 |
| 1967 | 8 | #5,307 | — | — |
| 1966 | 6 | #6,339 | 9 | #2,919 |
| 1965 | 7 | #5,651 | — | — |
| 1964 | 5 | #7,482 | 7 | #3,513 |
| 1962 | — | — | 12 | #2,471 |
| 1961 | — | — | 7 | #3,571 |
| 1960 | — | — | 5 | #4,435 |
| 1948 | 5 | #5,798 | — | — |
About the data: counts are Social Security card applications for US births, for names given to at least five babies of a sex in a year (SSA, names.zip, public domain). Ranks follow SSA’s own order: most births first, ties alphabetical. Files retrieved 2026-10-05 (checksum on our sources page).