Meaning not yet researched.
Nikolai: US boys given the name each year, 1880 to 2025, from Social Security card applications. 469 in 2025. Its best rank was #474 in 2018.
US births per year · SSA card applications
Peaked at #474 in 2018; #605 in 2025. Every baby recorded as Nikolai in 2025 was a boy.
Baby name · US data 1880–2025
#605 for US boys in 2025. Its best year was 2018, at #474.
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.
Nikolai: US boys given the name each year from 1880 to 2025. 469 boys in 2025. Peak: #474 in 2018 · most boys in one year: 639 (2016).
In 2025, 469 US boys were named Nikolai, making it the 605th most common boys’ name of the year, down 11 places from #594 in 2024. That is 15 fewer than the 484 boys named Nikolai in 2024. Its best rank for boys was #474, reached in 2018. The most boys given the name in a single year was 639, in 2016. For comparison, it was #476 in 2015 and unranked in 1950.
Social Security card records list Nikolai in 63 years of the 146 from 1880 to 2025, starting in 1960 with 6 babies. In all, 11,027 US babies have been given the name, all of them boys. Its busiest decade was the 2010s, with 5,060 babies named Nikolai.
Over the 10 years from 2016 to 2025, 5,437 US boys were named Nikolai; the busiest of those years was 2016, with 639. In 2025 that was about 1 in 3,642 of the boys in SSA’s list for the year.
Among the states, Nikolai ranked highest in New Mexico in 2025, at #259 for boys there. It was not in the top 100 of any state. Related spellings in the SSA files include Nicolas (101,764 babies since 1880), Niko (15,135 babies since 1880), Nicolai (1,865 babies since 1880) and Nicola (8,090 babies since 1880). Rarer spellings such as Nickolai, Nikyla and Nickola 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.
Rare spellings summarised here: Nickolai (533), Nikyla (150), Nickola (136), Nikala (113), Nikkolai (28), Nikela (27), Nikila (17), Nikylah (16).
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 Nikolai 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 25 are not listed.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank 2025 | Rank 2015 |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Mexico | 8 | #259 | #216 |
| Nebraska | 7 | #369 | — |
| Connecticut | 7 | #430 | #273 |
| Florida | 42 | #447 | #410 |
| Pennsylvania | 23 | #450 | #579 |
| Colorado | 13 | #459 | #434 |
| Utah | 10 | #461 | #355 |
| California | 66 | #489 | #371 |
| Washington | 15 | #492 | #456 |
| Georgia | 20 | #532 | #730 |
| Wisconsin | 9 | #558 | #737 |
| Arizona | 12 | #585 | #381 |
| South Carolina | 8 | #590 | #733 |
| Kentucky | 7 | #607 | — |
| Indiana | 11 | #612 | #471 |
| New York | 25 | #613 | #526 |
| Michigan | 13 | #628 | #585 |
| Missouri | 9 | #632 | #513 |
| Texas | 45 | #666 | #433 |
| Ohio | 13 | #700 | #488 |
| Tennessee | 10 | #707 | #891 |
| North Carolina | 13 | #707 | #484 |
| Virginia | 10 | #714 | #358 |
| Minnesota | 5 | #900 | #455 |
| Illinois | 8 | #993 | #554 |
| New Jersey | 6 | #1,001 | #609 |
Births and national rank for each year SSA lists the name, newest first.
| Year | Girls | Girls rank | Boys | Boys rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | — | — | 469 | #605 |
| 2024 | — | — | 484 | #594 |
| 2023 | — | — | 470 | #604 |
| 2022 | — | — | 491 | #584 |
| 2021 | — | — | 622 | #481 |
| 2020 | — | — | 521 | #545 |
| 2019 | — | — | 554 | #515 |
| 2018 | — | — | 614 | #474 |
| 2017 | — | — | 573 | #507 |
| 2016 | — | — | 639 | #480 |
| 2015 | — | — | 629 | #476 |
| 2014 | — | — | 516 | #540 |
| 2013 | — | — | 436 | #585 |
| 2012 | — | — | 421 | #602 |
| 2011 | — | — | 365 | #640 |
| 2010 | — | — | 313 | #734 |
| 2009 | — | — | 299 | #760 |
| 2008 | — | — | 231 | #903 |
| 2007 | — | — | 208 | #953 |
| 2006 | — | — | 163 | #1,084 |
| 2005 | — | — | 162 | #1,039 |
| 2004 | — | — | 141 | #1,125 |
| 2003 | — | — | 124 | #1,194 |
| 2002 | — | — | 116 | #1,203 |
| 2001 | — | — | 108 | #1,239 |
| 2000 | — | — | 80 | #1,513 |
| 1999 | — | — | 95 | #1,288 |
| 1998 | — | — | 94 | #1,284 |
| 1997 | — | — | 76 | #1,434 |
| 1996 | — | — | 82 | #1,330 |
| 1995 | — | — | 68 | #1,451 |
| 1994 | — | — | 76 | #1,343 |
| 1993 | — | — | 63 | #1,488 |
| 1992 | — | — | 62 | #1,483 |
| 1991 | — | — | 65 | #1,421 |
| 1990 | — | — | 52 | #1,604 |
| 1989 | — | — | 46 | #1,698 |
| 1988 | — | — | 37 | #1,840 |
| 1987 | — | — | 31 | #2,009 |
| 1986 | — | — | 29 | #2,041 |
| 1985 | — | — | 32 | #1,857 |
| 1984 | — | — | 27 | #2,021 |
| 1983 | — | — | 18 | #2,641 |
| 1982 | — | — | 21 | #2,395 |
| 1981 | — | — | 24 | #2,178 |
| 1980 | — | — | 26 | #2,098 |
| 1979 | — | — | 28 | #1,929 |
| 1978 | — | — | 16 | #2,759 |
| 1977 | — | — | 24 | #2,046 |
| 1976 | — | — | 32 | #1,669 |
| 1975 | — | — | 31 | #1,651 |
| 1974 | — | — | 21 | #2,094 |
| 1973 | — | — | 12 | #2,971 |
| 1972 | — | — | 16 | #2,394 |
| 1971 | — | — | 12 | #2,926 |
| 1970 | — | — | 10 | #3,208 |
| 1969 | — | — | 15 | #2,277 |
| 1966 | — | — | 5 | #4,356 |
| 1965 | — | — | 8 | #3,169 |
| 1964 | — | — | 8 | #3,213 |
| 1962 | — | — | 5 | #4,467 |
| 1961 | — | — | 5 | #4,474 |
| 1960 | — | — | 6 | #3,940 |
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).