9BabyNames Baby names with meanings & US popularity data Italiano

Nicolas vs Lucas

How Nicolas and Lucas compare across 146 years of US Social Security Administration baby-name records — popularity history, peak years, current rank, and which name overtook which.

Open Name Tournament

Nicolas

Male · French

Meaning: Victorious: Conquerer Of The People. Variant Of Nicholas.

Lucas

Male · Gaelic

Meaning: Light

US Popularity History — Side-by-Side

Annual US births named Nicolas (boys) vs Lucas (boys), from US Social Security Administration national records.

Source: US Social Security Administration. Names appearing fewer than 5 times per year are suppressed by SSA.

Quick Stats

Metric Nicolas Lucas
Peak year (most US births) 2003 — 3,003 boys 2017 — 13,029 boys
Peak rank #134 #11
Most recent rank (2025) #177 (2,053 births) #10 (10,219 births)
Total US births since 1880 61,308 290,284
Last 10 years (2016–2025) 20,075 116,799

Peak comparison takeaway

At its all-time peak, Lucas reached 13,029 US births in 2017 — 10,026 more than Nicolas's peak count.

Strongest States — Last 10 Years

States where each name ranked highest, from SSA's state-level dataset. Lower average rank = name appears closer to the top of that state's boys-name list.

Nicolas — top 5 states

#StateAvg rankBirths
1 California #105 3,947
2 Florida #108 1,870
3 Texas #123 2,957
4 District of Columbia #128 97
5 Connecticut #134 263

Lucas — top 5 states

#StateAvg rankBirths
1 Florida #3 8,933
2 New York #4 8,253
3 New Jersey #4 3,983
4 Maryland #6 2,113
5 Connecticut #6 1,403

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Data & methodology

Source: US Social Security Administration national baby names dataset 1880–2025 (CC0 public domain). Names with fewer than 5 occurrences in a given year are suppressed by SSA. State-level coverage runs 1910–2025. Crossover detection compares annual birth counts (not ranks) for each year both names appear. Methodology: see full notes. More comparisons →