Nikolai is the Russian form of Nicholas, from the Greek Nikolaos, and means "victory of the people". It belonged to two Russian tsars, to the novelist Nikolai Gogol and to the composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. American parents use it as a more distinctive route to the nickname Nik; Nikolai entered the top 1000 in 2007, peaked at number 474 in 2018 and ranks number 605 in 2025.