Nikola
A Slavic name meaning "victory of the people". It crested in the 2000s and has been sliding ever since: fewer girls get it each year, though with tens of thousands of women carrying it, it still rings familiar across Poland.
Nikola Pronunciation
Nikola is pronounced nyee-KO-lah (/ɲiˈkɔla/).
What Nikola means
Where Nikola comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Nikola is the Slavic form of a name assembled from two Greek pieces: nikē, victory, and laos, the people. Together they give the sense written in Polish as zwycięstwo ludu, victory of the people. The Greek Nikolaos moved north long ago and settled into Slavic speech as Nikola, and in Poland it now belongs to girls.
In the 2000s the name climbed high on the lists given to Polish daughters. It travels in company. The variants Nicoleta and Nikoleta swap the ending while keeping the same root of victory and people.
The name is short. Read a class register in a Polish school and you will probably find a Nikola somewhere near the front. Whatever the spelling on the page, the meaning holds steady: zwycięstwo ludu, victory of the people.
When Nikola celebrates name day
Nikola appears 2 times in the Polish name day calendar, never as a main name. The first of these dates is 1 November.
Rarer dates. Only the most complete calendars add this name on these days. Most skip them, so hardly anyone celebrates then.
How many people are named Nikola
1 in 287 women in Poland is named Nikola. 78,816 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #142 among female names.
Nikola's popularity over time
623 girls were given the name in 2025, ranking #92 among newborns. It has been falling steadily since 2000.
Where parents choose Nikola
Nikola is most popular in Holy Cross, 57% above the national average (321 girls born 2019–2025), followed by Lublin (+46%) and Łódź (+45%). It is least common in Opole and Pomeranian, 44% and 30% below average respectively.
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Holy Cross
+57%1 in 173 babies
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Lublin
+46%1 in 186 babies
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Łódź
+45%1 in 187 babies
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Opole
−44%1 in 480 babies
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Pomeranian
−30%1 in 385 babies
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Silesian
−30%1 in 388 babies
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Holy Cross+57% 321 born1 in 173 babies+57%
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Lublin+46% 553 born1 in 186 babies+46%
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Łódź+45% 676 born1 in 187 babies+45%
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Subcarpathian+44% 641 born1 in 188 babies+44%
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Podlaskie+34% 326 born1 in 202 babies+34%
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Warmian-Masurian+13% 300 born1 in 239 babies+13%
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Lesser Poland+6% 888 born1 in 256 babies+6%
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Masovian−1% 1,293 born1 in 274 babies−1%
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian−10% 364 born1 in 300 babies−10%
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Greater Poland−11% 708 born1 in 304 babies−11%
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West Pomeranian−12% 275 born1 in 307 babies−12%
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Lubusz−25% 138 born1 in 360 babies−25%
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Lower Silesian−26% 429 born1 in 366 babies−26%
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Pomeranian−30% 383 born1 in 385 babies−30%
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Silesian−30% 586 born1 in 388 babies−30%
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Opole−44% 96 born1 in 480 babies−44%
Nikola as a middle name
Nikola is a first name for 78,816 women in Poland and a middle name for another 10,284, an 88/12 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 108th, between Marlena (10,361) and Jagoda (10,085).
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#106 Dagmara10,634
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#107 Marlena10,361
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#108 Nikola10,284
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#109 Jagoda10,085
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#110 Eliza10,077