Nicolas
A French-flavored form of Nicholas, from Greek for "victory of the people". Almost unknown across Poland: still, more boys got it last year than in the lean stretch before, and it's a name given only to sons.
Nicolas Pronunciation
Nicolas is pronounced nyee-TSO-lahs (/ɲiˈt͡sɔlas/).
What Nicolas means
Where Nicolas comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Nicolas begins in Greek, in the name Nikolaos, which binds nike, victory, to laos, the people. Read together they give the meaning that has trailed the name since antiquity: victory of the people, or in Polish zwycięzca ludu.
The French took the name and kept it close. Nicolas of Myra, the fourth-century bishop later honored as Saint Nicolas, gave it a home in churches across France, and the painter Nicolas Poussin, born in 1594, wrote it large across European art. The spelling stayed plain, with that soft French ending, and it traveled well beyond its Greek start.
Poland knows the name too. When a teacher reads down a class register and reaches Nicolas, the boy answers to something older than the classroom, to a word first assembled from nike and laos. Behind the French surface sits the same promise it began with: the people winning.
How many people are named Nicolas
1 in 5747 men in Poland is named Nicolas. 3,716 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #548 among male names.
Nicolas's popularity over time
70 boys were given the name in 2025, ranking #294 among newborns. It has been stable for a decade.
Where Nicolas is most popular
Nicolas is most popular in Silesian, 90% above the national average (65 boys born 2019–2025), followed by Lower Silesian (+35%) and Kuyavian-Pomeranian (+22%). It is least common in Świętokrzyskie and Subcarpathian, 76% and 50% below average respectively.
-
Silesian65 boys born+90%
-
Lower Silesian32 boys born+35%
-
Kuyavian-Pomeranian20 boys born+22%
-
Pomeranian27 boys born+22%
-
Lubusz9 boys born+21%
-
Lublin17 boys born+10%
-
Łódź21 boys born+10%
-
Greater Poland34 boys born+5%
-
Warmian-Masurian11 boys born+2%
-
Opole6 boys born−13%
-
West Pomeranian11 boys born−13%
-
Lesser Poland24 boys born−30%
-
Masovian32 boys born−40%
-
Podlaskie5 boys born−49%
-
Subcarpathian9 boys born−50%
-
Świętokrzyskie2 boys born−76%
Nicolas as a middle name
Nicolas is a first name for 3,716 men in Poland and a middle name for another 841, an 82/18 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 247th, between Leo (862) and Javier (823).
-
245
867Victor
-
246
862Leo
-
247841Nicolas
-
248
823Javier
-
249
819Carlos