Here comes... Święty Mikołaj? 🎅🏻

And the many other names for Santa Claus

It’s Christmas Eve, and you know what that means — Santa Claus will be making his annual journey across the world.

Even just where I am in America, Santa is a man of many names. Santa Claus, Saint Nicholas, Kris Kringle, Belsnickle, Father Christmas — this jolly old man has quite an array of aliases.

And when you expand further into the 160+ different countries and cultures in which Christmas is celebrated worldwide, there is a whole lot of Christmas name inspiration to dig into.

So let’s do a deep dive into the many names of Mr. Santa Claus and how these names came to be.

Saint Nicholas / Santa Claus

Saint Nicholas of Myra (born in 270 AD) was an early Christian bishop with a habit of secret gift-giving, and is fittingly the patron saint of children.

The Dutch name for Saint Nick — Sinterklaas, derived from Sint Nikolaas — eventually transformed into the name “Santa Claus” that we know him as today.

Other related international monikers include Święty Mikołaj (Polish), Mikulás (Hungarian), San Nikola (Maltese), and Sant Nicolau (Catalan).

Other variations of Nicholas:

Nico, Cole, Colin, Nick, Nikolai, Klaus, Collins, Kolya, Nikolo, Nils, Mikolai, Nicole, Nicolette, Colette, Coline

Kris Kringle

In the 1500s during the Protestant Reformation in Germany, Martin Luther renounced the worship of saints including Saint Nicholas. With this came the idea that baby Jesus himself — called Christkind or Christkindle, German for “Christ-child” — would deliver presents on Christmas Eve.

In the 1800s, Christkindl would morph into Kris Kringle, a name that truly took off when used in the 1947 movie Miracle on 34th Street.

Kris, Chris, and all of his variants feel especially fitting for a Christmas baby. In addition to Christopher and Christian, intriguing choices include Kristoff, Kit, Kristo, Topher, and Christos.

Father Christmas

One of the most popular names for Santa globally is “Father Christmas”. The meaning of this one is pretty self-explanatory.

International variations of this name include Père Noël (French), Papa Noel (Spanish), Babbo Natale (Italian), Daidí na Nollag (Irish), and Dyado Koleda (Bulgarian).

Many international translations of “Christmas” make lovely baby names, including Noel, Noelle, Nollaig, Noelie, and Nouela, Natalie, Natalia, Natale, Natala, Natasha, and Natalino, Navidad, and Joulu.

Unique Santa Names

Other unique names for Santa include Belsnickle (German/Dutch), Kanakaloka (Hawaiian), Olentzero (Basque), and Weihnachtsmann (German).

Other “Santa” Figures

Other Santa-esque figures are fabled to deliver gifts around Christmas time across the world.

In Greece, it is Saint Basil of Caesarea (Agios Vasilios in Greek) — a kind-hearted and helpful man who aided those living in poverty while he was bishop in Caesarea — who delivers gifts on New Years Eve.

Basil is a vintage boy name that doubles as a nature name — two stylish features that could propel the name back on parents’ lists.

In Italy there is a gift-giving good-witch called La Befana, while in Nordic cultures this role is performed by elves called tomte (Swedish), julenisse (Norwegian), and tonttu (Finnish), and Iceland has similar elfish creatures called Yule Lads.

In Russia, Ded Moroz — “Grandfather Frost” — is the Santa figure, and in Japan, there is the Buddhist monk Hoteiosho.

In Finland there is Joulupukki — meaning “Christmas goat” — which is, well, a gift-giving goat.

Did we miss any? What name do you call your “Santa Claus”?