Nikolai
A close cousin of Mikołaj that keeps the Greek intact, from nikē and laos: victory of the people. Just over 600 men in Poland carry it and only a handful of boys get it each year, so meeting one stays memorable.
Nikolai Pronunciation
Nikolai is pronounced nyee-ko-LAH-ee (/ɲikɔˈlai/).
What Nikolai means
Where Nikolai comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Nikolai grew from two Greek words: nikē, meaning victory, and laos, meaning the people. Put together they read as victory of the people, zwycięstwo ludu. The same root gave Poland its Mikołaj, the variant every child meets each December in the figure of Święty Mikołaj.
The name traveled far from Greece. It took hold in Russia, where tsars and peasants alike answered to it, and it settled across Scandinavia in forms like Niels and Nils. Saint Nicholas of Myra, the fourth-century bishop remembered for secret gifts to the poor, carried it into Christian devotion and fixed its place on the calendar.
Read a Polish class register and you may find a Nikolai seated near a Mikołaj, two branches of one Greek root. The victory in the name was never a private one. It belonged to the crowd, to the lud. And so a boy named Nikolai wears an old promise: zwycięstwo ludu, victory of the people.
How many people are named Nikolai
1 in 34154 men in Poland is named Nikolai. 625 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #1193 among male names.
Nikolai's popularity over time
4 boys were given the name in 2025, ranking #1120 among newborns. It has been climbing since 2020.
Where Nikolai is most popular
Nikolai is most popular in Lower Silesian, 358% above the national average (2 boys born 2019–2025), followed by Lesser Poland (+217%) and Masovian (+103%).
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Lower Silesian2 boys born+358%
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Lesser Poland2 boys born+217%
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Masovian2 boys born+103%
Nikolai as a middle name
Nikolai is a first name for 625 men in Poland and a middle name for another 43, a 94/6 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 1209th, between Lucian (43) and Pavel (43).
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#1207 Linus43
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#1208 Lucian43
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#1209 Nikolai43
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#1210 Pavel43
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#1211 Radoslaw43