Nikola

Nikola is the Slavic form of Nicholas, from the Greek nike and laos, victory of the people. In Bulgaria, Serbia, and the wider Balkans it is almost exclusively masculine, and enormously common, the name of saints, tsars, and the electrical genius Nikola Tesla, whose handwriting still decorates Serbian banknotes. Elsewhere in Europe, particularly in Italian and German usage, the same spelling swings feminine, which is how it arrived in the English-speaking world as a unisex option. Three open syllables, a soft central k, a gentle fall at the end. Nikola reads dignified and historically deep, a name that has belonged to many and still feels personal.