Nikolai or Nicholai? Poll

Last name is Zolensky.
[name_f]Sister[/name_f] is [name_f]Milena[/name_f].
[name_u]Baby[/name_u] will go by [name_u]Niko[/name_u] or [name_u]Nico[/name_u].

We feel strongly about having Slavic, Polish, or Armenian origin for our children’s names, don’t want to set them up for additional difficulties in school etc by having names that seem too “foreign” in middle [name_u]Tennessee[/name_u] (difficult for southerners to pronounce, spell, etc), but don’t want names that are overly common in the US either.

  • Nikolai ([name_u]Niko[/name_u])
  • Nicholai ([name_u]Nico[/name_u])

0 voters

I strongly prefer the [name_m]Nikolai[/name_m] spelling.

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Love [name_m]Nikolai[/name_m]!

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My grandson is [name_u]Niko[/name_u] and I love [name_m]Nikolai[/name_m]!

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Nikolai looks nicer to me! I love [name_m]Nikolai[/name_m] nn [name_u]Niko[/name_u] - so sweet and handsome!! It goes perfectly with sister [name_f]Milena[/name_f] too!

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I have a [name_m]Nikolai[/name_m] :slight_smile: We also needed a name that worked in both a Slavic language/culture (my husband is Czech) and [name_f]English[/name_f] language/American culture. [name_m]Nikolai[/name_m] has been perfect for that! We get a lot of compliments on his name too :slight_smile: [name_m]Nikolai[/name_m] really won out for us because [name_m]Nikolai[/name_m] is very European, but [name_u]Nick[/name_u]/Nicky is so comfortable and friendly for Americans (he’s a dual citizen, so he’ll always have a foot in each culture). We’re happy that he can use either as he gets older, particularly depending on how he feels in each culture. We use [name_m]Nikolai[/name_m], [name_u]Nick[/name_u], [name_u]Nicky[/name_u] interchangeably at home (but he is definitely [name_m]Nikolai[/name_m] predominately).

I will add though - it is amazing how many people (not just Americans but Europeans too) misspell it. I’m pretty sure my own extended family (from the Midwest US) still has trouble with the spelling, even though I thought it was pretty intuitive (he’s 2, lol). In our case, I think it’s because we use [name_u]Nick[/name_u]/Nicky too, so people try to spell it [name_m]Nickolai[/name_m] (but I get lots of variations too…Nicholai, Nikolay, Nikolaj, [name_m]Nicolai[/name_m], Nikoli, Nicoli… you name it, lol). So I’m sure using [name_u]Niko[/name_u] as the nickname would be more intuitive for the [name_m]Nikolai[/name_m] spelling.

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This is so informative. :heart:
Thank you so much for sharing!!

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I much prefer the look of [name_m]Nikolai[/name_m]

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I really like [name_m]Nikolai[/name_m]! It goes really well with your last name, too!

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