« Reply #6 on: Monday 27 April 20 02:35 BST (UK) »
There are a few German spellings for Nicholas:
Nickolaus, Nicolaus, Niklaus, Nickolas, Nikolaus
for surname distribution in Germany , the familysearch has a webpage which includes a couple of websites for Germany - I prefer the Stoepel website.
https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Surname_Distribution_MapsA baby's given name is the one next to its surname and the previous given names are donated by godparents/witnesses.
When a newly arrived German reads that the British census requires the FIRST given name and not the person's actual given name, you can see why it's often a reason for later family historians to scratch their heads and wonder what happened to our ancestors.
I was lucky with my German ancestors in that every branch followed the normal naming pattern that is often found in Scotland, England, Wales and Ireland.
Aberdeen: Findlay-Shirras,McCarthy: MidLothian: Mason,Telford,Darling,Cruikshanks,Bennett,Sime, Bell: Lanarks:Crum, Brown, MacKenzie,Cameron, Glen, Millar; Ross: Urray:Mackenzie: Moray: Findlay; Marshall/Marischell: Perthshire: Brown Ferguson: Wales: McCarthy, Thomas: England: Almond, Askin, Dodson, Well(es). Harrison, Maw, McCarthy, Munford, Pye, Shearing, Smith, Smythe, Speight, Strike, Wallis/Wallace, Ward, Wells;Germany: Flamme,Ehlers, Bielstein, Germer, Mohlm, Reupke