Nikita

Where Nikita comes from

From the Russian Ники́та (Nikíta), a male given name, from Ancient Greek Νικήτας (Nikḗtas, “conqueror”) also a male given name (and name of various saints). The Greek word derives from νῑ́κη (nī́kē, “victory”). Made known in the West by Nikita Khrushchev, Soviet Union leader in 1953–1964. It was reanalyzed as a form of Nicholas and taken up as a girls' name first in French and then in English.
— Wiktionary's entry for Nikita
  • Ancient Greek
  • Russian
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1894
    Nikita Khrushchev born
    leader of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964
  2. 1945
    Nikita Mikhalkov born
    Russian film director, writer, producer and actor
  3. 1949
    First appearance
    #5,244 among girls, 5 babies — the first year at least five got the name.
  4. 1986
    Peak, #250
    1,034 babies named Nikita — more than any year before or since.
  5. 1988
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #497.
  6. 2025
    Mostly girls from here
    Until now more boys than girls got the name; from this year it's the other way round, and has stayed that way.
In the dictionary
  • A female given name from Ancient Greek.
  • A male given name from Russian, from Russian Ники́та (Nikíta).
  • A transliteration of the Russian male given name Ники́та (Nikíta).
  • A transliteration of the Ukrainian male given name Нікі́та (Nikíta)
Namesakes
  • Nikita Khrushchev · leader of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, 1894–1971
  • Nikita Mikhalkov · Russian film director, writer, producer and actor, born 1945
  • Nikita Mazepin · Russian racing driver, born 1999
  • Nikita Simonyan · Soviet and Russian footballer and coach, 1926–2025
  • Nikita Vitiugov · Russian chess player, born 1987

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.