Nicholas

Nicholas is the 1,378th most common surname in the United States, shared by 25,235 people at the 2020 census. That is about one person in 11,800.

By the numbers

People: 25,235
Rank: 1,378th
How common: 1 in 11,800
Per 100,000: 8.4

Where the name comes from

Origin a patronymic

From Middle English Nicholas, from Old French Nicholas, from Latin Nīcolāus, from Ancient Greek Νικόλαος.

Etymology from Wiktionary, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Who bears the name

How people with the surname Nicholas described their own race and Hispanic origin at the 2020 census:

White, not Hispanic 68.8%
Black, not Hispanic 18.7%
Hispanic or Latino 5.2%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 4.4%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 1.6%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 1.3%

Notable people called Nicholas

Thomas Ian Nicholas (born 1980)American actor
Charlie Nicholas (born 1961)Scottish footballer
J. Nicholas (1879–1929)English association football player
Drew Nicholas (born 1981)American basketball player
Peter Nicholas (born 1959)Welsh footballer and manager
Wilson Cary Nicholas (1761–1820)American politician
Fayard Nicholas (1914–2006)Choreographer, dancer, actor
Hilda Rix Nicholas (1884–1961)Australian painter

People named Nicholas with articles in the most Wikipedia languages. Data from Wikidata (CC0).

Surnames like Nicholas

Also a first name

Nicholas has been given to 929,199 American babies as a first name since 1880, peaking in 1995. See it as a given name.

Try it on yourself

Source: US Census Bureau, Frequently Occurring Surnames, 2020. The Census describes the file as the surnames borne by 100 or more people; rarer names are not published. The line is not quite exact, and 617 published names come in under it, the smallest at 92 people. Race and Hispanic origin are self-reported. Rates are worked out against the 298.9 million people the file's own figures are calculated on, which is fewer than the census counted in all: the difference is everyone whose surname was too rare to publish.