The name Nicholas is derived from the Greek name Nikolaos. It is composed of the two terms ‘Nike’ and ‘Laos’ – meaning victory and people. Compounded, the name translates as ‘victory of the people’.
Nicholas is a first name typically given to boys, but in rare cases also used as a girls name.
The first name Nicholas is one of the top 100 most popular boys names in the US – currently at #60 in our SmartGenius ranking. Over 1,000 babies each year are named Nicholas, accounting for approximately 0.30 % of all newborn boys. In total, there are currently 908,997 people – children, adults and seniors – named Nicholas living in the United States, which is approximately 0.27 % of the entire population.
The name Nicholas is derived from the Greek name Nikolaos. It is composed of the two terms ‘Nike’ and ‘Laos’ – meaning victory and people. Compounded, the name translates as ‘victory of the people’.
Did you know… that Saint Nicholas, Bishop of Myra in Lycia, served as the inspiration for Santa Claus?
Nick Cave (*1957)
Nicholas Edward Cave, better known as Nick Cave, is an Australian musician, author, screenwriter, and actor. He became famous as the frontman of the post-punk band 'Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds', which formed in 1983. He first appeared in a film in 1988: 'Ghosts... of the Civil Dead', an Australian prison film that he both co-wrote and scored. In 1989 he released his first novel 'And the Ass Saw the Angel'. Since then, he starred in several other films and published further novels, non-fictions and poetry.
Nick Jonas (*1992)
Nicholas Jerry Jonas, better known as Nick Jonas, is an American musician and actor. He achieved international recognition as a member of the band 'Jonas Brothers' which he formed together with his two older Brothers in 2005. After the band took a break in 2013, Nicholas Jonas honed his solo career and released his self-titled album 'Nick Jonas'. Since then he released several more albums. He is also known as an actor, for instance, he starred in the musical film 'Camp Rock' (2008).
Nicholas Cage (*1964)
Nicholas Cage is a well-known American actor and filmmaker. He made his acting debut in the early 1980s and has since appeared in a wide variety of films such as 'City of Angels' (1998) or 'Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse' (2018). He played his career-defining role in 'Leaving Las Vegas' (1995). Cage's portray of Ben Sanderson, an alcoholic Hollywood screenwriter who travels to Las Vegas to drink himself to death, earned him an Academy Award.
Nicholas Hoult (*1989)
Nicholas Caradoc Hoult is an English actor who started acting in his childhood. At the time, he rose to fame alongside Hugh Grant in Nick Hornby's 'About a Boy' (2002). Since his successful career start in childhood he starred in numerous film productions such as 'Mad Max: Fury Road' (2015) or 'Tolkien' (2019). His breakthrough as an adult came with the role of Hank McCoy in 'X-Men: First Class' (2011).
Nicholas Sparks (*1965)
Nicholas Sparks is a bestselling American novelist, screenwriter, and producer. He is best known for writing romance novels. Eleven of them have been adapted into popular films such as 'Message in a Bottle' (1999), 'The Notebook' (2004), 'The Lucky One' (2012), 'Safe Haven' (2013) or 'The Choice' (2016). His best-selling books have sold 115 million copies worldwide in more than 50 languages.
When you hear the name Nicholas, you might first think of people. But did you know that there are also places with the name Nicholas? Are you also called Nicholas? Maybe one day you will visit the places that are named just like you...
there is a 4,806 feet-mountain called Mount Nicholas. It forms the northern limit of the Douglas Range on the east side of Alexander Island.
on the island of Saint Croix in the United States Virgin Islands, there is a settlement with the name Nicholas.
a popular name for tropical storms, cyclones and hurricanes. In 2003, for example a Tropical Storm called Nicholas swept over the Atlantic Ocean and Florida.
are called Nicholas. One of them is in Kentucky and has a population of 7,537 while the other one is located in West Virginia with a population of 24,604 people.
was an important bishop in the 4th Century, there are many churches called Nicholas such as St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church in Manhatten, New York City.
The name Nicholas seems to be an integral part of the U.S. - without Nicholas, the Constitution, and basketball, the States wouldn't be the U.S. we love. This is evidenced by the fact that Nicholas is one of the few names which have been given in the U.S. in every single year since the beginning of the name statistics and thus since 1880. Of course, Nicholas hasn't been equally popular in all 142 years - it was most often given as a baby name before the 2000s: In 1999 it was one of the top 10 most popular baby boy names in the entire United States, ranking #5 on the SmartGenius Top Names chart.
In years where the graph has no value, the name Nicholas was given less than five times or even none at all in the entire USA.
3,824 young parents chose the name Nicholas for their newborn child in 2021, placing it at position 97 on the list of most popular boys' names - in other words, 96 boys' names were given more frequently in 2021. The name was particularly rare in 1881 - only 56 times in the whole year. This puts it at position 194 in our SmartGenius first name statistics for that year.
Wherever you go, wherever you live – there’s a good chance to meet Nicholas. Because: There are men and boys named Nicholas in every state in the USA. This may sound quite unspectacular at first, but in fact, of the nearly 50,000 different male first names that occur in the USA, just 386 are recorded in each individual state, so the name Nicholas is definitely something very special. In some regions it even makes it into the top 100 of the most popular male first names, for example in Nevada, where Nicholas ranks on position 22. The greatest chance of meeting Nicholas, however, is in New Hampshire, where one in 102 boys and men bears this beautiful name – that is far above average – in the entire USA it is only one in 183 men and boys and in Mississippi, where the name is least represented in relation to the population, you even have to ask an average of 408 men and boys for their name before you once get Nicholas as an answer.
Well, you might say, you probably figured that out yourself! But what you might not know is: 3.0% of all common boys' names in the US begin with an N. This means that N as the first letter for boys' names is neither particularly common nor rare. The most common first letters of boys' names are J, A and D, while X, U and Q are the least common initials of boys' names.
With eight letters, the name Nicholas is long compared to other names. In fact, 14.5% of all common first names in the US consist of exactly eight letters. 78% of all first names are shorter, while only 8% of all boys’ and girls’ names use nine letters or even more. On average, first names in the US (not counting hyphenated names) are 6.5 letters long with no significant differences between boys' and girls' names.
Thus, if 3.0% of all boys’ names start with an N, this initial letter is slightly less common than all other letters on average. Nevertheless, there are boys' names with N that are quite common in the U.S., the most common at present is Nicholas.
If your name is Nicholas and someone asks after your name, you can of course just tell them what it is. But sometimes that isn't so easy - what if it's too loud, and you don't understand them well? Or what if the other person is so far away that you can see them but not hear them? In these situations, you can communicate your name in so many other ways: you call spell it, sign it, or even use a flag to wave it...
So that everyone really understands you when you have to spell the name Nicholas, you can simply say:
Nut
Igloo
Cat
Hat
Orange
Lion
Apple
Sun
Braille is made up of dots, which the blind and visually impaired can feel to read words.
Nicholas
Nicholas
Just use American Sign Language!
These flags are used for maritime communication - each flag represents a letter.
N
I
C
H
O
L
A
S
In the navy, sailors of two ships might wave flags to each other to send messages. A sailor holds two flags in specific positions to represent different letters.
N
I
C
H
O
L
A
S
In Morse code, letters and other characters are represented only by a series of short and long tones. For example, a short tone followed by a long tone stands for the letter A. Nicholas sounds like this:
