How popular is the baby name Nikita 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 Nikita.

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Popularity of the baby name Nikita


Posts that mention the name Nikita

Popular baby names in Moldova, 2016

Flag of Moldova
Flag of Moldova

According to an article published in late January by Moldovan news site Publika TV, the most popular baby names in Moldova in 2016 were Sofia and David.

The article was hard to interpret, but here’s my guess at Moldova’s top girl names and top boy names of 2016:

Girl Names
1. Sofia
2. Anastasia
3. Daria
4. Victoria
5. Alexandra
6. Evelina
7. Amelia
8. Andrea
9. Valeria
10. Gabriela

Boy Names
1. David
2. Maxim
3. Alexandru
4. Artiom (…which is based on the name of Greek goddess Artemis)
5. Ion (…looks molecular, but it’s actually a form of John)
6. Bogdan
7. Daniel
8. Matthew
9. Nikita
10. Michael

The top names in 2014 were Sofia and Maxim.

Source: Most popular baby names chosen by Moldovans in 2016

Image: Adapted from Flag of Moldova (public domain)

Why did Nikita debut as a boy name in 1959?

Soviet politician Nikita Khrushchev (1894-1971) in 1961.
Nikita Khrushchev

Nikita Khrushchev was the leader of the Soviet Union for over a decade (1953 to 1964) during the early Cold War.

Between the time the U.S.S.R. launched Sputnik in 1957 and sent Yuri Gagarin on the first manned space flight in 1961, Khrushchev became first Soviet head of state to visit the United States.

Upon the invitation of president Dwight D. Eisenhower, Khrushchev and his family (wife Nina, son Sergei, daughters Julia and Rada, and son-in-law Alexei) flew to Washington, D.C., on September 15, 1959. They visited New York, California, Iowa, and Pennsylvania before flying back to Moscow on the 27th.

Though Khrushchev famously never made it to Disneyland, he did manage to make an impression upon expectant parents:

Girls named NikitaBoys named Nikita
19613921
19605625
19594419*
195816.
195713.
*Debut

The name Nikita had appeared in the U.S. baby name data as a girl name before, but in 1959 it showed up for the very first time as a boy name.*

These days the usage of Nikita is about equal for males and females — 93 baby girls and 92 baby boys got the name in 2015. But there was a spike in female usage in 1985, thanks to the song “Nikita” by Elton John. (American radio listeners similarly interpreted Luka as a girl name a couple of years later.)

The name Nikita can be traced back to the ancient Greek word for “victor,” niketes, which is based on the more familiar word nike, meaning “victory.”

And eight years after the name Nikita debuted, another Russian arrival, Svetlana Stalina, showed up and added yet another Soviet-inspired baby name to the mix…

*To debut in the SSA’s baby name data, a name has to be given to least 5 babies of one gender or the other within a single calendar year.

Sources: Nikita Khrushchev – Wikipedia, Timeline: Nikita Khrushchev’s Trip Itinerary, SSA
Image: John F. Kennedy & Nikita Khrushchev in 1961

Popular baby names in Estonia, 2014

Flag of Estonia
Flag of Estonia

According to data from Estonia’s Ministry of the Interior the most popular baby names in the country in 2014 were Sofia and Rasmus.

Here are Estonia’s top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2014:

Girl Names

  1. Sofia, 102 baby girls
  2. Eliise, 74
  3. Maria, 73
  4. Mia, 71
  5. Lisandra, 60
  6. Mirtel, 59
  7. Sandra, 58
  8. Emma, 55 (tie)
  9. Laura, 55 (tie)
  10. Darja, 50

Boy Names

  1. Rasmus, 91 baby boys
  2. Artjom, 89
  3. Robin, 83
  4. Martin, 80
  5. Oliver, 74
  6. Romet, 71
  7. Sebastian, 70
  8. Robert, 68
  9. Artur, 64
  10. Maksim, 63

In the boys’ top 10, Robert, Artur and Maksim replaced Markus, Nikita and Sander.

In the girls’ top 10, Eliise, Sandra, Emma and Darja replaced Anna, Milana, Viktoria and Liisa.

Eliise has “undergone a great rise,” according to my source, thanks to the song “Für Elise” — not the one by Beethoven, but the one by Estonian band Traffic. Here’s the video:

Here are the 2013 rankings for Estonia.

Source: Most popular baby names of 2014

Image: Adapted from Flag of Estonia (public domain)

Popular baby names in Estonia, 2013

Flag of Estonia
Flag of Estonia

Estonia’s top baby names of 2013 were published in the newspaper Postimees at the end of 2012.

The paper didn’t explicitly mention the source of the information (the Ministry of the Interior?) but reported that the country’s most popular names from January to November, 2013, were Maria and Rasmus.

Here are Estonia’s projected top 15 girl names and top 15 boy names of 2013:

Girl Names

  1. Maria*
  2. Sofia
  3. Laura
  4. Anna*
  5. Mia/Miia
  6. Milana
  7. Lisandra
  8. Mirtel
  9. Viktoria
  10. Liisa
  11. Arina
  12. Darja
  13. Aleksandra
  14. Sandra
  15. Adeele/Adele

Boy Names

  1. Rasmus
  2. Artjom*
  3. Martin
  4. Robin
  5. Oliver
  6. Markus
  7. Nikita*
  8. Romet
  9. Sebastian
  10. Sander
  11. Kristofer
  12. Robert
  13. Oskar
  14. Maksim
  15. Daniel

(The names with asterisks (*) are particularly popular among Russian-speakers in Estonia.)

Names that increased in popularity last year include Rasmus, Gregor and Mia.

Kevin, Kristjan and Kristina, on the other hand, decreased in popularity “significantly.”

Mirtel, 8th on the girls’ list, was rare until Estonian actress Mirtel Pohla came along.

The name Lenna was similarly uncommon until Estonian singer Lenna Kuurmaa hit the scene, and now Lenna is “quite popular,” though not in the top 15.

Robin, 4th on the boys’ list, is a curious one. It’s not an Estonian name, but simply the English male name Robin. And yet it’s trending in Estonia right now. (The last time Robin was trendy in the U.S. was a half century ago, and most of those baby Robins were female.) Could the inspiration be “Blurred Lines” singer Robin Thicke? I know it’s a long shot, but that’s all I can think of.

Postimees also published the following list of Estonia’s most popular baby names from 1992 to 2004. (They did say the Ministry of the Interior was the source for this one.)

Top Girl Names, 1992–2004Top Boy Names, 1992–2004
1. Anna
2. Laura
3. Kristina
4. Maria
5. Diana
6. Sandra
7. Anastassia
8. Jekaterina
9. Karina
10. Alina
11. Kristiina
12. Aleksandra
13. Viktoria
14. Darja
15. Liis
16. Anastasia
17. Kätlin
18. Julia
19. Valeria		1. Martin
2. Sander
3. Aleksandr
4. Kristjan
5. Kevin
6. Nikita
7. Markus
8. Artur
9. Maksim
10. Karl
11. Dmitri
12. Daniil
13. Siim
14. Rasmus
15. Aleksei
16. Andrei
17. Artjom
18. Mihkel
19. Ilja

I’m guessing 2004 was picked as an endpoint because Estonia enacted a name law in early 2005 that regulates baby name orthography (to start weeding out foreign letters such as x, y and c). The full list has 677 names; at the bottom are names like Sirje, Raina, Raneli and Patricia.

Sources: And This Year’s Most Popular Baby Names Are…, These are the days of Rasmus, Artjom, Maria and Sofia

Image: Adapted from Flag of Estonia (public domain)