Nichollas
Derived from Greek name Nikolaos, meaning "victory of the people".
Name Census estimates that about 77 living Americans carry the first name Nichollas. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Nichollas today is around 28 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Nichollas births was 2007 (7 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Nichollas. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Nichollas. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
77
~ 1 in 4,451,355 Americans
Peak year
2007
7 babies that year
Average age
28
years old
2009 SSA rank
#12,039
Tracked since 1981
Census
Nichollas in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 123 people with the first name Nichollas, which placed it at #49,809 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#49,809
National first-name rank
People counted
123
123 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
57.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Nichollas
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Nichollas is White at 57.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (19.5%) and Black (13.8%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Nichollas described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Nichollas at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White57.7% · 71
- Hispanic or Latino19.5% · 24
- Black or African American13.8% · 17
- Two or more races6.5% · 8
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.6% · 2
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.8% · 1
Popularity
Nichollas: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Nichollas from the 1980s through to the 2000s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 40 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1990s peak, Nichollas remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Nichollas by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Nichollas during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Nichollas
The name Nichollas is derived from the Greek name Nikolaos, which itself is a compound of the words "nikan" meaning "to conquer" and "laos" meaning "people." This name can be traced back to ancient Greece and the Byzantine Empire, where it was a popular name among the Greek population.
In the early Christian era, the name gained significant popularity due to its association with Saint Nicholas, the 4th-century Bishop of Myra, who was known for his generosity and kindness. Saint Nicholas became one of the most venerated saints in the Christian tradition, and his feast day on December 6th is celebrated worldwide.
The name Nichollas first appeared in written records during the Middle Ages, with variations such as Nicholas, Nicolas, and Nicolaus being used across Europe. One of the earliest recorded individuals with this name was Nicholas of Myra (270-343 AD), better known as Saint Nicholas, who was renowned for his charitable acts and became the basis for the modern-day Santa Claus.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Nichollas or its variations. One of the most famous was Nicholas Copernicus (1473-1543), the Renaissance mathematician and astronomer who formulated the heliocentric model of the solar system, which placed the Sun at the center of the universe.
Another prominent individual was Nicholas Flamel (c. 1330-1418), a French scribe and manuscript-seller who was believed to have discovered the philosopher's stone and achieved immortality, although the veracity of these claims is disputed.
In the realm of literature, we have Nicholas Nickleby, the titular character of Charles Dickens' 1838-1839 novel "The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby," which satirized the exploitation of young men in Victorian England.
The name Nichollas has also been associated with royalty, such as Nicholas II (1868-1918), the last Tsar of Russia, whose reign ended with the Russian Revolution and the execution of his family by the Bolsheviks.
Finally, in the field of science, we have Nicholas Steno (1638-1686), a Danish pioneer in the study of stratigraphy and crystallography, who is considered the founder of modern geology.
People
Nichollas + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Nichollas as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with N
Other first names starting with N with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Nichollas: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Nichollas?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 77 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Nichollas going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 4,451,355 US residents.
Is Nichollas a common name?
We classify Nichollas as "Very Rare". It ranks above 60.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 79 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Nichollas most popular?
The single biggest year for Nichollas was 2007, when 7 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Nichollas is about 28 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Nichollas in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 123 people with the name Nichollas, or 0.04 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #49,809 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Nichollas in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Nichollas?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Nichollas leans strongly male. 132 people counted with this name were male (97.1%), compared with 4 female bearers (2.9%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Nichollas?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Nichollas is White at 57.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (19.5%) and Black (13.8%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Nichollas most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Nichollas in the 2020 Census, accounting for 57.7% (71 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Nichollas in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Nichollas a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Nichollas in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Nichollas still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Nichollas in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Nichollas can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How common is the name Nichollas?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people have the name Nichollas at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.