Humanverse

Nikita vs Nikolette

American parents have registered 13,668 Nikitas since 1880, against 518 Nikolettes. Nikita is still ahead, with 56 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Nikita against Nikolette, 1880 to 2025 0 300 600 900 1.2k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Nikita Nikolette

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

Nikita has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1949 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1994, when Nikita had 243 and Nikolette had 32.

Side by side

  Nikita Nikolette
Total US births 13,668518
Most in one year 1,06632
Babies in 2025 56under 5
Estimated living today 13,000510
Median age today 3226
Peak year 19861994
Best rank 250th girls3,448th girls
Rank in 2025 4,460thunranked
First recorded 19491981
Girls / boys 10,778 / 2,890518 / 0

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 Nikitas alive today are over 32; half the Nikolettes are over 26. 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: Nikita and Nikolette.