Nickie
A diminutive form of the masculine name Nicholas, derived from the Greek meaning "victory of the people."
Name Census estimates that about 3,508 living Americans carry the first name Nickie. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 68.7% of registrations being female. The average person named Nickie today is around 55 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Nickie births was 1973 (138 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Nickie. 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
3.5K
~ 1 in 97,706 Americans
Peak year
1973
138 babies that year
Average age
55
years old
2004 SSA rank
#12,666
Tracked since 1914
Census
Nickie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,452 people with the first name Nickie, which placed it at #5,092 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
#5,092
National first-name rank
People counted
3.5K
3,452 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
68.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Nickie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Nickie is White at 68.6%. The next largest groups are Black (14.9%) and Hispanic (7.1%). 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 Nickie 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 Nickie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White68.6% · 2,368
- Black or African American14.9% · 515
- Hispanic or Latino7.1% · 245
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.6% · 158
- Two or more races3.8% · 131
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 35
Gender
Gender distribution for Nickie
Nickie is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 4,596 total registrations, 1,438 (31.3%) were male and 3,158 (68.7%) were female.
Nickie as a male name
- Ranked #12,666 in 2004
- 5 male births in 2004
- Peak: 1954 (44 births)
Nickie as a female name
- Ranked #18,114 in 2016
- 5 female births in 2016
- Peak: 1972 (111 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Nickie leans strongly female. 2,796 people counted with this name were female (81.2%), compared with 647 male bearers (18.8%).
Popularity
Nickie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Nickie from the 1910s through to the 2010s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 1,039 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Nickie 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 Nickie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Nickies live
The SSA's state-level files cover 18 states and territories. California, Texas, Ohio recorded the most babies named Nickie, while Kentucky, Indiana, Arkansas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 48 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Nickie
The name Nickie is a diminutive form of the name Nicholas, which has its origins in the Greek name Nikolaos. Nikolaos is derived from the words "nikan" meaning "to conquer" and "laos" meaning "people." The name was popularized by the legendary Saint Nicholas, who was a 4th-century Greek Christian bishop of Myra in modern-day Turkey.
The name Nickie gained popularity in the English-speaking world during the Middle Ages, particularly after the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. It was often used as a nickname for those named Nicholas, which was a common name among the Norman nobility.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Nickie can be found in the 13th-century medieval romance "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," where a character named Sir Nickie is mentioned.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals with the name Nickie. One of the most famous was Nickie Rowe (1905-1982), an American jazz pianist and bandleader who was a prominent figure in the Chicago jazz scene during the 1920s and 1930s.
Another notable bearer of the name was Nickie Bucknall (1924-2005), an English cricketer who played for Gloucestershire County Cricket Club in the 1940s and 1950s. He was known for his skillful batting and was part of the Gloucestershire team that won the County Championship in 1949.
In the world of literature, Nickie Ferrante (1928-2017) was a notable American author and journalist. She wrote several critically acclaimed novels, including "The Chisellers" and "The Husband Hunters," which explored the lives of Italian-American families in New York City.
Nickie Roberts (1938-2003) was a British actress best known for her roles in television series such as "The Avengers" and "The Prisoner." She had a successful career in both British and American television and film.
Lastly, Nickie Baxter (born 1990) is a contemporary Australian rules footballer who plays for the Carlton Football Club in the Australian Football League Women's (AFLW) competition. She has been a key player for Carlton since the inception of the AFLW in 2017.
People
Nickie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Nickie 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
Nickie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Nickie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,508 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Nickie 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 97,706 US residents.
Is Nickie a common name?
We classify Nickie as "Rare". It ranks above 95.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,596 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Nickie most popular?
The single biggest year for Nickie was 1973, when 138 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Nickie is about 55 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Nickie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,452 people with the name Nickie, or 1.14 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,092 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 Nickie 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 Nickie?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Nickie leans strongly female. 2,796 people counted with this name were female (81.2%), compared with 647 male bearers (18.8%). 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 Nickie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Nickie is White at 68.6%. The next largest groups are Black (14.9%) and Hispanic (7.1%). 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 Nickie most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Nickie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 68.6% (2,368 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 Nickie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Nickie a female name?
Yes, 68.7% of people registered as Nickie in the SSA data are female. 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 Nickie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Nickie 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 Nickie 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 Nickie?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many Americans are named Nickie at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.