Nickey
A diminutive form of the name Nicholas, meaning "victorious people" from Greek.
Name Census estimates that about 1,539 living Americans carry the first name Nickey. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 83.4% of registrations being male. The average person named Nickey today is around 59 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Nickey births was 1957 (60 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Nickey. 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.
People living today
1.5K
~ 1 in 222,712 Americans
Peak year
1957
60 babies that year
Average age
59
years old
2008 SSA rank
#12,128
Tracked since 1921
Census
Nickey in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,237 people with the first name Nickey, which placed it at #10,666 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
#10,666
National first-name rank
People counted
1.2K
1,237 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
66.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Nickey
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Nickey is White at 66.7%. The next largest groups are Black (20.5%) and Hispanic (4.5%). 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 Nickey 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 Nickey at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White66.7% · 825
- Black or African American20.5% · 253
- Hispanic or Latino4.5% · 56
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.1% · 51
- Two or more races3.0% · 37
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.2% · 15
Gender
Gender distribution for Nickey
Nickey leans heavily male at 83.4% of total registrations, but 332 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Nickey as a male name
- Ranked #12,128 in 2008
- 6 male births in 2008
- Peak: 1959 (52 births)
Nickey as a female name
- Ranked #15,073 in 1995
- 5 female births in 1995
- Peak: 1985 (20 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Nickey on both sides of the split. Of the 1,244 people counted with this name, 844 were male (67.8%) and 400 were female (32.2%).
Popularity
Nickey: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Nickey from the 1920s through to the 2000s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 452 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Nickey 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 Nickey during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Nickeys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 10 states and territories. Texas, Tennessee, Mississippi recorded the most babies named Nickey, while North Carolina, Louisiana, Indiana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 28 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Nickey
The name Nickey is a diminutive form of the masculine given name Nicholas, which has its origins in the Greek language. The name Nicholas is derived from the Greek words "nikē" meaning "victory" and "laos" meaning "people." Therefore, the name Nickey can be interpreted as "victor of the people" or "victorious among the people."
The name Nicholas gained widespread popularity due to its association with Saint Nicholas, a 4th-century Christian saint who was renowned for his generosity and kindness towards children. Saint Nicholas was the bishop of Myra, a city in modern-day Turkey, and his feast day is celebrated on December 6th in the Western Christian tradition.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Nickey can be found in the 12th-century English text, "The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle," where it appears as a variant spelling of Nicholas. During the Middle Ages, the name Nickey was primarily used in England and other parts of the British Isles.
In the 14th century, a renowned English scholar and theologian named Nicholas Treveth, also known as Nickey Treveth, made significant contributions to the study of ancient Greek texts. He was born in Cornwall, England, around the year 1265.
Another notable figure with the name Nickey was Nickey Byrne, an Irish politician who served as a member of the Irish Parliament in the late 18th century. He was born in County Wicklow, Ireland, in 1748 and played a role in the Irish Patriot movement, which sought greater autonomy for Ireland within the British Empire.
In the 20th century, Nickey Rackard was a renowned Irish hurler who played for the Kilkenny senior hurling team. He was born in 1913 and is widely regarded as one of the greatest hurlers in the history of the sport, winning six All-Ireland Championship titles with Kilkenny.
Another notable figure with the name Nickey was Nickey Huntington, an American jazz drummer and bandleader who was active in the 1930s and 1940s. He was born in New York City in 1909 and made significant contributions to the development of the swing era in jazz music.
Throughout history, the name Nickey has been used as a diminutive form of Nicholas, reflecting its Greek roots and the enduring influence of Saint Nicholas on the popularity of the name. While not as common as the full name Nicholas, Nickey has been borne by several notable figures across various fields, reflecting its rich cultural heritage.
People
Nickey + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Nickey 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
Nickey: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Nickey?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,539 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Nickey 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 222,712 US residents.
Is Nickey a common name?
We classify Nickey as "Rare". It ranks above 92.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,995 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Nickey most popular?
The single biggest year for Nickey was 1957, when 60 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Nickey is about 59 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Nickey in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,237 people with the name Nickey, or 0.41 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #10,666 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 Nickey 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 Nickey?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Nickey on both sides of the split. Of the 1,244 people counted with this name, 844 were male (67.8%) and 400 were female (32.2%). 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 Nickey?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Nickey is White at 66.7%. The next largest groups are Black (20.5%) and Hispanic (4.5%). 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 Nickey most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Nickey in the 2020 Census, accounting for 66.7% (825 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 Nickey in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Nickey a male name?
Yes, 83.4% of people registered as Nickey 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 Nickey still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Nickey 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 Nickey 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 many Americans are named Nickey?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people share the name Nickey at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.