Nicolas, the French form of Nicholas, comes from the Greek name Nikolaos and is composed of the Greek elements nike, meaning "victory," and laos, meaning "people." Therefore, Nicolas translates to "victory of the people." It started gaining popularity in the 1950s before seeing a massive spike in usage in the 1970s where it went from ranking 532nd in the U.S. in 1974 to 153rd by 1978. Nicolas has now been a top-200 boy's name every year since 1989, with the exception of 2015, 2017 and 2019. Other variations include Nick, Nikolai and Nico.
