Nicolaas
Derived from Greek, meaning "victorious people" or "victory of the people".
Name Census estimates that about 387 living Americans carry the first name Nicolaas. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Nicolaas today is around 30 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Nicolaas births was 1996 (22 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Nicolaas. 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
387
~ 1 in 885,670 Americans
Peak year
1996
22 babies that year
Average age
30
years old
2017 SSA rank
#10,466
Tracked since 1960
Popularity
Nicolaas: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Nicolaas from the 1960s through to the 2010s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 131 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1990s peak, Nicolaas remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Nicolaas 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 Nicolaas during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Nicolaas' live
Origin
Meaning and history of Nicolaas
Nicolaas is a Dutch given name derived from the Greek name Nikolaos, which was formed from the words "nikē" meaning "victory" and "laos" meaning "people." The name was popular among early Christians and can be traced back to the 3rd century AD.
The name gained widespread popularity across Europe during the Middle Ages, with various spellings such as Nicolaus, Nicolas, and Nicolaas. It was particularly common in the Netherlands, where it became a popular Dutch variant.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Nicolaas can be found in the 4th century AD, referring to Saint Nicholas of Myra, a Christian saint and Greek bishop known for his generosity and kindness towards children. His feast day on December 6th became a significant celebration, contributing to the widespread use of the name Nicolaas across Christian communities.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Nicolaas. One of the most famous was Nicolaas Copernicus (1473-1543), a Renaissance mathematician and astronomer who formulated the heliocentric model of the solar system, placing the Sun at the center.
Another prominent figure was Nicolaas Bloemaert (1590-1658), a Dutch painter and engraver known for his religious and mythological works, as well as his portraits and landscapes.
In the realm of science, Nicolaas Steno (1638-1686) was a Danish pioneer in both anatomy and geology, making significant contributions to the study of fossils and the principles of stratigraphy.
The Dutch Golden Age produced several notable individuals with the name Nicolaas, including Nicolaas Elenbaas (1637-1676), a renowned landscape painter, and Nicolaas Hartsoeker (1656-1725), a scientist and inventor who made advancements in microscopy and optics.
More recently, Nicolaas Bloembergen (1920-2017) was a Dutch-American physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1981 for his contributions to the development of laser spectroscopy.
People
Nicolaas + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Nicolaas 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
Nicolaas: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Nicolaas?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 387 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Nicolaas 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 885,670 US residents.
Is Nicolaas a common name?
We classify Nicolaas as "Very Rare". It ranks above 82% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 398 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Nicolaas most popular?
The single biggest year for Nicolaas was 1996, when 22 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Nicolaas is about 30 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Nicolaas a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Nicolaas 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.
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.