Nicolis
A masculine name with Greek roots implying victory over people.
Name Census estimates that about 138 living Americans carry the first name Nicolis. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Nicolis today is around 28 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Nicolis births was 1992 (13 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Nicolis. 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
138
~ 1 in 2,483,727 Americans
Peak year
1992
13 babies that year
Average age
28
years old
2010 SSA rank
#8,595
Tracked since 1988
Census
Nicolis in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 189 people with the first name Nicolis, which placed it at #39,747 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
#39,747
National first-name rank
People counted
189
189 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
55.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Nicolis
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Nicolis is White at 55.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (21.2%) and Black (16.4%). 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 Nicolis 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 Nicolis at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White55.0% · 104
- Hispanic or Latino21.2% · 40
- Black or African American16.4% · 31
- Two or more races7.4% · 14
Popularity
Nicolis: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Nicolis from the 1980s through to the 2010s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 74 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Nicolis 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 Nicolis 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 Nicolis
The name Nicolis is a variation of the Greek name Nikolaos, which is derived from the elements "niko" meaning "victory" and "laos" meaning "people". It is believed to have originated in the ancient Greek civilization around the 5th century BC. The name was initially used to honor the Greek goddess of victory, Nike.
One of the earliest recorded references to the name Nicolis can be found in the writings of the ancient Greek historian Herodotus, who mentioned a man named Nicolis from the city of Sparta. However, the name did not gain widespread popularity until the spread of Christianity, when it became associated with Saint Nicholas, the 4th-century Bishop of Myra, who was renowned for his generosity and kindness towards children.
In the Middle Ages, the name Nicolis was particularly popular in Eastern Europe, where it was commonly used in countries such as Russia, Bulgaria, and Serbia. One notable figure from this period was Nicolis Gogol, a Ukrainian-born Russian dramatist and novelist, who lived from 1809 to 1852 and is considered one of the greatest writers in Russian literature.
During the Renaissance, the name Nicolis gained popularity in Western Europe as well. One notable individual was Nicolis Copernicus, the Polish astronomer who lived from 1473 to 1543 and is credited with formulating the heliocentric model of the solar system, which placed the Sun at the center of the universe.
In the 18th century, Nicolis Tesla, a Serbian-American inventor and engineer, was born in 1856 and is best known for his groundbreaking work in the field of electricity and electromagnetism. His contributions include the development of the alternating current (AC) electrical system and the invention of the induction motor.
Another notable figure with the name Nicolis was Nicolis Romanov, who was the last Tsar of Russia and ruled from 1894 until his abdication in 1917. He was executed along with his family during the Russian Revolution in 1918, marking the end of the Romanov dynasty.
People
Nicolis + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Nicolis 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
Nicolis: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Nicolis?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 138 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Nicolis 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 2,483,727 US residents.
Is Nicolis a common name?
We classify Nicolis as "Very Rare". It ranks above 69.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 141 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Nicolis most popular?
The single biggest year for Nicolis was 1992, when 13 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Nicolis 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 Nicolis in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 189 people with the name Nicolis, or 0.06 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #39,747 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 Nicolis 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 Nicolis?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Nicolis leans strongly male. 186 people counted with this name were male (96.4%), compared with 7 female bearers (3.6%). 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 Nicolis?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Nicolis is White at 55.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (21.2%) and Black (16.4%). 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 Nicolis most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Nicolis in the 2020 Census, accounting for 55.0% (104 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 Nicolis in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Nicolis a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Nicolis 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 Nicolis still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Nicolis 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 Nicolis 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 people have Nicolis as a first name?
If you just want to know how many people have the name Nicolis, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.