How popular is the baby name Nicholas in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Use the popularity graph and data table below to find out! Plus, see all the blog posts that mention the name Nicholas.

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Popularity of the baby name Nicholas


Posts that mention the name Nicholas

Baby born on George Washington’s birthday, named George Washington

American statesman George Washington (1732-1799)
George Washington

George Washington, the first president of the United States, was born on February 22, 1732.

A few minutes before midnight on February 22, 1931 — almost 200 years later — Mr. and Mrs. Nicholas Bushman of Chicago welcomed a baby boy. They named him George Washington Bushman.

But it doesn’t end there.

A few minutes after midnight, the baby’s twin sister was born. Her name? Martha Washington Bushman. (The real Martha Washington was born in June, incidentally.)

The twins’ patriotic names were chosen by their father, who was out of work at the time.

“That’s because I love America,” he said. “I love this country even when times are bad.”

(The twins were born in the middle of the Great Depression.)

Source: “Twins Named After George and Martha.” Portsmouth Times 24 Feb. 1931: 1.

Image: George Washington (1795) by Gilbert Stuart

Where did the baby name Miklo come from in 1994?

The character Miklo from the movie "Blood In, Blood Out" (1993).
Miklo from “Blood In, Blood Out

The curious name Miklo first appeared in the U.S. baby name data in the mid-1990s:

  • 1996: unlisted
  • 1995: 9 baby boys named Miklo
  • 1994: 10 baby boys named Miklo [debut]
  • 1993: unlisted
  • 1992: unlisted

What put it there?

I think the answer is Blood In Blood Out (1993), a movie set in the Mexican-American community of East Los Angeles in the ’70s and ’80s.

The film’s main characters are three young men: mixed-race Miklo (pronounced meek-lo), who has a Mexican mother and a white father, Miklo’s cousins Paco and Cruz, both of whom are fully Chicano.

Miklo’s upbringing…has socialized him into developing a proud Chicano identity. However, his fair complexion, blue eyes, and sandy blond hair frequently serve as a topic of ridicule among relatives and fellow Chicanos, thus painfully reminding Miklo of his undesired whiteness.

Blood In Blood Out didn’t do well at the box office, but has since “attained cult status…as a classic, epic Chicano gangster flick.”

Several sources suggest that miklo (or miclo) might be a Chicano slang term for a light-skinned Hispanic person. If this usage is legit, though, I don’t know whether it predates the film or is due to the film.

In any case, I don’t think Miklo has anything to do with the similar-looking name Miklós (pronounced meek-losh), the Hungarian form of Nicholas that has been popping up in the SSA data since the late ’50s.

What are your thoughts on the name Miklo?

Sources:

Image: Screenshot of Blood In Blood Out

Popular baby names in Gibraltar, 2022

Flag of Gibraltar
Flag of Gibraltar

The British overseas territory of Gibraltar is a narrow peninsula jutting out from the southern coast of Spain.

Though the official language of Gibraltar is English, most Gibraltarians also speak Spanish. (In fact, the mix of Andalusian Spanish and British English spoken by locals has its own name: Llanito.)

Last year, Gibraltar welcomed 364 babies — “almost a baby for every day of 2022.” There were 179 baby girls and 185 baby boys.

And what were the most popular names among these babies? Sienna and Elijah/Leo (tie).

Here are Gibraltar’s top girl names and top boy names of 2022:

Girl names

  1. Sienna, 6 baby girls
  2. Ava and Lucia, 5 each (tie)
  3. Emily, Isabella, and Valentina, 4 each (3-way tie)
  4. Amelia, Chloe, Isla, Lauren, and Lily, 3 each (5-way tie)
  5. Charlotte, Eliza, Elsie, Gabriella, India, Luna, Mia, Robyn, Sophie, Thalia, and Tiana, 2 each (11-way tie)

Boy names

  1. Elijah and Leo, 5 baby boys each (tie)
  2. Noah, Oliver, Theo, and Thomas, 4 each (4-way tie)
  3. Jamie, Lewis, Lucas, and Thiago, 3 each (4-way tie)
  4. Amir, Arthur, Erik, Freddie, Gabriel, Hugo, Isaac, Jack, Jacob, James, Jason, Joseph, Kai, Liam, Logan, Louie, Luca, Mason, Matthew, Niall, Nico, Ryan, Theodore, and Zayn, 2 each (24-way tie)

The rest of the names were each bestowed once. (Except for Riley, which was bestowed twice overall — once for each gender.)

Unique girl names (120)Unique boy names (93)
Ada, Adeline, Adelyn, Ahriella, Alba, Alessandra, Alis, Alisha, Aliyanna, Alona, Amaya, Amelie-Rae, Amira, Ana, Andie, Anna, Aoife, April, Arabella, Ari, Aria, Ariana, Arianna, Arieya, Aris, Aubrey, Avery, Cali, Callie, Celeste, Cipbelynn, Cora, Daisy, Daisy-Ray, Dayana, Elise, Ellen, Emma, Esme, Estella, Evelyn, Fae, Farah, Faye, Fern, Florence, Haley, Harlequin, Hayley, Ines, Jessie, Josephine, Josie, Julia, Kairo, Kennan, Kian, Killian, Kyel, Kylo, Kate, Katie, Kyla, Kythea, Layan, Layla, Leah, Leticia, Lina, Lottie, Maeva, Maia, Manuela, Margaret, Margot, Mariam, Matilde, Maya, Mayra, Melianne, Mila, Millie, Molly, Neriah, Nora, Nylah-Mae, Poppy, Presley, Quinn, Radhika, Raya, Renaelia, Rhianne, Riley, Roeeya, Rose, Ruby, Rumi, Sara, Savannah, Selina, Shannah, Siera, Snow, Sophia, Stella, Summer, Talia, Tasnim, Thea, Tillie, Willow, Winter, Yael, Yara, Yasmin, Yui, Zahra, Zaphyr, ZoeAbdurhman, Abel, Airam, Alaa, Alfie, Alfred, Andrei, Anthony, Archie, Ariel, Asher, Ashton, Austin, Axton, Bear, Benas, Bowie, Bradley, Cairo, Carlos, Charlie, Cody, Crislee, Dante, Domenico, Dominic, Dylan, Elias, Elis, Emilian, Emilio, Ethan, Evan, Finley, Frankie, Gary, Gian, Graham, Haroun, Henry, Hudson, Imram, Iyad, Jake, Jax, Jay, Jayce, Jayden, Jesse, Jonah, Joud, Leigh, Louis, Luis, Luke, Manuel, Marco, Mattia, Maxwell, Michael, Millel, Nassim, Nathan, Neo, Nicholas, Nicolas, Nilan, Noa, Nuveshshing, Nyan, Nyle, Oscar, Otis, Otto, Ray, Rayan, Remy, Riley, Rocco, Romeo, Samy, Scott, Sebastian, Shane, Stephen, Teo, Tommy, Tyler, Wael, Yaqub, Zachary, Zack, Zuhayr

Finally, here are Gibraltar’s 2021 rankings, if you’d like to compare last year to the year before.

P.S. Did you know that John Lennon and Yoko Ono got married in Gibraltar in March of 1969?

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Flag of Gibraltar (public domain)

“Jeopardy!” contestant named after IKEA furniture

Contestant Niklas Berry on the TV game show "Jeopardy!" (Jul. 2023)
Niklas Berry on “Jeopardy!

Last week, the TV game show Jeopardy! featured a contestant named Nik Berry.

After introducing Nik to the audience, Jeopardy! host Ken Jennings asked Nik about his name:

Nik Berry, a social studies teacher, comes to us from Baltimore. Now, I know a lot of Niks, but you might be the only one who’s named after — what?

Nik responded:

Well, my parents wanted an alternate spelling of Nicholas, so they went with n-i-k-l-a-s because, when they were shopping at IKEA before my birth, they saw a shelf called the Niklas.

Hundreds of U.S. babies have been named Ikea, but this is the first person I know of who was named with a specific piece of IKEA furniture in mind.

According to IKEA’s Norwegian-language Navnekatalogen (“Name Directory”), the Niklas shelf was introduced in 1981. Here’s what it looked like:

IKEA Niklas (1981)
“Never say no to a good book”

What are your thoughts on the name Niklas?

(And, did you know that a handful of U.S. babies have been named after Jeopardy contestants?)

Sources: Contestant Zone – Jeopardy.com, Jeopardy! tweet (20 Jul. 2023)