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Nicolas vs Nikkolas

American parents have registered 101,764 Nicolases since 1880, against 511 Nikkolases. Nicolas is still ahead, with 2,053 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Nicolas against Nikkolas, 1880 to 2025 0 800 1.6k 2.4k 3.2k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Nicolas Nikkolas

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Nicolas has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1882 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1992, when Nicolas had 1,808 and Nikkolas had 32.

Side by side

  Nicolas Nikkolas
Total US births 101,764511
Most in one year 3,01232
Babies in 2025 2,0536
Estimated living today 97,000500
Median age today 2127
Peak year 20031992
Best rank 134th boys2,303rd boys
Rank in 2025 177th10,695th
First recorded 18821984
Girls / boys 179 / 101,5850 / 511

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Nikkolases alive today are over 27; half the Nicolases are over 21. That is 6 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Nicolas and Nikkolas.