Nicholas

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Nicolas in AR Argentina, BR Brazil, FR France and 9 more, Николай in RU Russia, KZ Kazakhstan, TR Türkiye and 1 more, Микола in UA Ukraine and Nikolaos in GR Greece.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 10 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Nicholas is also recorded as 4 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• a separate given name105K records spelled Nicholas3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, India, United Kingdom, Canada

  Also written Nícholas, Nicholás

• Indonesian given name22K records spelled Nicholas12 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Indonesia, United States, Malaysia, United Kingdom

  Languages: Indonesian, Malay

  Also written Nikolaus, 'Nicholas, Nicholas', Ñichölas, Nichölas

• Hungarian given name4.4K records spelled Nicholas2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Hungary, United States, United Kingdom, Slovenia

  Also written Mikołaj

• Bangla given name2.7K records spelled Nicholas18 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, India, United Kingdom, Malaysia

  Languages: Bangla, Hindi, Odia

  Also written Nikolas, Nicolas, Nikolash, নিকোলাস, Nicholash

79 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Nicholas is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In English, from Latin Nicolaus, Greek Nikolaos “victory-people”; first attested Nicolaus 1086 DB

  as a name·A Dictionary of English Surnames

• In Irish, Greek name meaning ‘victory people’; popular in Ireland since the Middle Ages.

  as a name·Irish first names

• In English, Nikolaos, from nikan to conquer + laos people). Forms with -ch- are the result of hypercorrection (cf. Anthony). Vars.: Ger.: Niederer (comp.); Niederst (sup.); Niedermann. Jewish: Niederman 451 Niedzielski Nisbit

  as a name·The Oxford Names Companion - The definitive guide to Surnames, First Names, and Place Names of the British Isles

• In English, A male given name from Ancient Greek, notably born by St. Nicholas of Myre, on whom Father Christmas is based.

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In Swedish, Nicholas är den engelska, och Nicolas den franska formen av → Nikolaus. Båda formerna har blivit populära de senaste årtiondena. Möjligen har namngivningen av den svenske prins Nicolas (f. 2015) spelat in. Nikolas är en förtyskning av den franska formen. I den finlandssvenska almanackan 6 december.

  as a name·Förnamn i Sverige. Kortfattat namnlexikon

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 146 years between 1880–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Louis Mountbattenb. 1900GBnot in their usual nameBritish statesman and naval officer (1900-1979)
• Nicholas Wintonb. 1909GBBritish stockbroker who saved 669 Jewish children during 1938–39 (1909–2015)
• Richard Bransonb. 1950GBnot in their usual nameBritish business magnate
• Nick Parkb. 1958GBnot in their usual nameBritish animator and filmmaker (born 1958)
• Nicholas Sparksb. 1965USAmerican writer and novelist
• Adrien Brodyb. 1973USnot in their usual nameAmerican actor
• Nick Vujicicb. 1982AUnot in their usual nameAustralian evangelist and motivational speaker
• Nicholas Houltb. 1989GBEnglish actor (born 1989)
• Nick Jonasb. 1992USnot in their usual nameAmerican singer, actor and musician
• Nicholas Galitzineb. 1994GBBritish actor (born 1994)

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 1,509 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Nicholas?

We estimate roughly 2.3 million people bear Nicholas (counting its spellings and scripts) across 13 countries in our records.

In which country does Nicholas have the most bearers?

Nicholas is most frequently recorded in Russia, where it is most often spelled николай.

How common is Nicholas compared with other names?

In Russia, Nicholas is the 14th most common given name of 418,751 given names recorded there.

Is Nicholas a male or female name?

Nicholas is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Nicholas mean?

Recorded meaning: from the male personal name Nicholas, ultimately from Greek Nikolaas, literally ‘victory-people’