Nickel
A German surname that usually began as a short form of Nicholas.
The #4,291 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 37,234 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Nickel is a pet form of the personal name Nicholas, ultimately from Greek Nikolaos, meaning “victory of the people.” In German naming practice, short forms like Nickel developed from Nicolas/Nikolaus and were used as familiar given names before becoming hereditary surnames. The name can also appear in compounds such as Jungnickel, Langnickel, and Mühlnickel.
History
The surname is especially associated with German-speaking areas and appears in historical name lists as both a forename and surname. 19th-century surname writers regularly treated Nickel as a diminutive or shortened form of Nicholas-related names. It also turned up beyond Germany through migration, especially in Central and Eastern European and English-language records.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
German surname dictionaries sometimes group Nickel with a whole family of Nicholas short forms, showing how widely one saint's name branched into local nicknames and surnames.
From the historical record
“choll. NICKEL. See NIchol. NICKELS. See Nicholas. NICKERSON. A corruption of Nichol- son. NICKINSON. The same as NIckissou. NOG”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom