Nickles
A surname most likely from Nicholas, meaning “Nicholas’s son” or a shortened Nick-family form.
The #7,205 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 66,626 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Nickles is best explained as a surname built on Nicholas, ultimately from the Greek name Nikolaos, meaning “victory of the people.” In English surname development, that personal name produced a large family of forms such as Nick, Nicks, Nichols, Nicholson, and Nickles. The ending -s can suggest “son of” or a possessive/genitive form, so Nickles likely began as a patronymic or a shortened nickname-based surname.
History
The historical excerpts treat Nickles as part of the Nicholas surname group, alongside Nichols, Nickerson, and Nicolson. That fits the usual English and Scottish pattern in which a popular saint’s name generated many regional spellings and derivatives. In the United States, Nickles is a relatively uncommon form, but it belongs to a much larger and long-established surname family.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
19th-century surname dictionaries often grouped Nickles with Nicholas-derived names rather than treating it as a separate root surname.
From the historical record
“Nickelson. Niokle. 421. Nickles. 1647 O'CONNOR.”
— Varieties and Synonymes of Surnames and Christian Names in Ireland