Nikitas
Nikitas is a masculine name of Greek origin meaning "victorious".
Name Census estimates that about 70 living Americans carry the first name Nikitas. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Nikitas today is around 37 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Nikitas births was 1977 (9 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Nikitas. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Nikitas with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Nikitas. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
70
~ 1 in 4,896,491 Americans
Peak year
1977
9 babies that year
Average age
37
years old
2015 SSA rank
#11,690
Tracked since 1973
Census
Nikitas in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 219 people with the first name Nikitas, which placed it at #36,320 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
#36,320
National first-name rank
People counted
219
219 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
92.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Nikitas
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Nikitas is White at 92.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (4.1%) and Black (1.8%). 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 Nikitas 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 Nikitas at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White92.2% · 202
- Hispanic or Latino4.1% · 9
- Black or African American1.8% · 4
- Two or more races1.8% · 4
Popularity
Nikitas: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Nikitas from the 1970s through to the 2010s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 37 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1970s peak, Nikitas remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Nikitas 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 Nikitas 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 Nikitas
The name Nikitas originates from the Greek language and culture, derived from the word "niketas," which means "victor" or "conqueror." It is a masculine name that has been in use since ancient times in the Greek-speaking world.
The earliest known reference to the name Nikitas can be found in ancient Greek literature and historical records, dating back to the classical period around the 5th century BC. One notable figure bearing this name was Nikitas of Smyrna, a Greek grammarian who lived in the 2nd century AD and authored works on rhetoric and language.
In the Byzantine era, the name Nikitas gained popularity among the ruling classes and the nobility. One of the most renowned individuals with this name was Nikitas of Remesiana, a 4th-century bishop and ecclesiastical writer who played a significant role in the spread of Christianity in the Balkans.
During the Middle Ages, the name Nikitas was widely used in the Eastern Orthodox Christian tradition. Several notable figures from this period bore this name, including Nikitas Stethatos, a 11th-century Byzantine monk and theologian, and Nikitas Choniates, a 12th-century Byzantine historian and politician.
In the modern era, the name Nikitas has been less common but has not disappeared entirely. One of the most famous individuals with this name was Nikitas Khruschev (1894-1971), the former leader of the Soviet Union who served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party from 1953 to 1964.
Other notable individuals named Nikitas throughout history include:
1. Nikitas Tsakos (1901-1992), a Greek army officer and politician who served as Prime Minister of Greece from 1963 to 1964.
2. Nikitas Lytras (1832-1904), a Greek painter and one of the leading figures of the Greek artistic movement known as the Munich School.
3. Nikitas Stamatelopoulos (1783-1809), a Greek revolutionary and military leader who played a crucial role in the Greek War of Independence against the Ottoman Empire.
4. Nikitas Kavvadias (1910-1975), a Greek poet and author, renowned for his works that explored the lives of sailors and the maritime world.
5. Nikitas Kaklamanis (1946-2011), a Greek politician who served as the Mayor of Athens from 1987 to 1989 and later as the Minister of Health and Social Solidarity from 2004 to 2007.
People
Nikitas + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Nikitas 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
Nikitas: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Nikitas?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 70 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Nikitas 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 4,896,491 US residents.
Is Nikitas a common name?
We classify Nikitas as "Very Rare". It ranks above 59.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 73 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Nikitas most popular?
The single biggest year for Nikitas was 1977, when 9 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Nikitas is about 37 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Nikitas in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 219 people with the name Nikitas, or 0.07 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #36,320 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 Nikitas 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 Nikitas?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Nikitas appears almost entirely male. Of the 216 people counted with this name, 100.0% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Nikitas?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Nikitas is White at 92.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (4.1%) and Black (1.8%). 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 Nikitas most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Nikitas in the 2020 Census, accounting for 92.2% (202 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 Nikitas in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Nikitas a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Nikitas 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 Nikitas still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Nikitas 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 Nikitas 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 Nikitas as a first name?
If you just want to know how many people have the name Nikitas, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.