query: instance_of nikos
supports: Lycia (Lycian:  "Trmmis" ) was a geopolitical region in Anatolia in what are now the provinces of Antalya and Mula on the southern coast of Turkey, and Burdur Province inland. Known to history since the records of ancient Egypt and the Hittite Empire in the Late Bronze Age, it was populated by speakers of the Luwian language group. Written records began to be inscribed in stone in the Lycian language (a later form of Luwian) after Lycia's involuntary incorporation into the Achaemenid Empire in the Iron Age. At that time (546 BC) the Luwian speakers were decimated, and Lycia received an influx of Persian speakers. A given name (also known as a personal name, Christian name, first name, or forename) is a part of a person's full nomenclature. It identifies a specific person, and differentiates that person from other members of a group, such as a family or clan, with whom that person shares a common surname. The term "given name" refers to the fact that the name usually is "bestowed" upon a person, normally "given" to a child by its parents at or near the time of birth. This contrasts with a surname (also known as a family name, last name, or gentile name), which is normally inherited, and shared with other members of the child's immediate family. Santa Claus, also known as Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Kris Kringle, Father Christmas, or simply Santa (Santy in Hiberno-English), is a legendary figure of Western Christian culture who is said to bring gifts to the homes of well-behaved ("good" or "nice") children on Christmas Eve (24 December) and the early morning hours of Christmas Day (25 December). The modern Santa Claus grew out of traditions surrounding the historical Saint Nicholas, a fourth-century Greek bishop and gift-giver of Myra, the British figure of Father Christmas, the Dutch figure of "Sinterklaas" (himself based on Saint Nicholas), the German figure of the Christkind (a fabulized Christ Child), and the holidays of Twelfth Night and Epiphany and their associated figures of the Three Kings (based on the gift-giving Magi of the Nativity) and Befana. Some maintain Santa Claus also absorbed elements of the Germanic god Wodan, who was associated with the pagan midwinter event of Yule and led the Wild Hunt, a ghostly procession through the sky. Chris is a short form of various names including Christopher, Christian, Christina, Christine, and Christos. Unlike these names, however, it does not indicate the person's gender although it is much more common for males to have this name than it is for females. Chris is also used as a name in its own right, although it is not as common.  Myra ([plural]) was an ancient Greek town in Lycia where the small town of Kale ("Demre") is situated today, in present-day Antalya Province of Turkey. It was located on the river Myros ("Demre Çay"), in the fertile alluvial plain between Alaca Da, the Massikytos range and the Aegean Sea. Nikos (  ) is a Greek common given name . It originates from Greek Nikolaos , which means `` victor of people '' . Although used as a proper first name , Nikos is also a popular nickname of the original Nikolaos ( Greek ) or Nicholas ( English ) . A name is a term used for identification. Names can identify a class or category of things, or a single thing, either uniquely, or within a given context. A personal name identifies, not necessarily uniquely, a "specific" individual human. The name of a specific entity is sometimes called a proper name (although that term has a philosophical meaning also) and is, when consisting of only one word, a proper noun. Other nouns are sometimes called "common names" or (obsolete) "general names". A name can be given to a person, place, or thing; for example, parents can give their child a name or a scientist can give an element a name. A personal name or "full name" refers to the set of names by which an individual is known and that can be recited as a word-group, with the understanding that, taken together, they all relate to that one individual. In many cultures, the term is synonymous with the "birth" and "legal names" of the individual, seen below. In many cultures, individuals possess a variety of names, in others they are known by a single name; when a plurality of names occur, some are specific to the individual, distinguishing them from related individuals (e.g., John Adams and John Quincy Adams), while other names indicate the person's relationship to or membership in a family, clan, or other social structure (as for Charles Philip Arthur George and one of his namesakes), or even to unrelated others (e.g., as for Leonardo DiCaprio and his namesake). Nikolaos is a common Greek first name which means "Victor of People", a compound of  "nik" 'victory' and  "laos" 'people'. The connotation is "people's champion" or "conqueror of people". The English form is Nicholas. Saint Nicholas; (15 March 270  6 December 343), also called Nikolaos of Myra, was a historic 4th-century Christian saint and Greek Bishop of Myra, in Asia Minor (modern-day Demre, Turkey). Because of the many miracles attributed to his intercession, he is also known as Nikolaos the Wonderworker. His reputation evolved among the faithful, as was common for early Christian saints, and his legendary habit of secret gift-giving gave rise to the traditional model of Santa Claus through Sinterklaas. Nicholas or Nikolas or Nicolas or Nickolas is a male given name, derived from the Greek name  ("Nikolaos"), a compound of  "nik" 'victory' and ; "laos" 'people', that is, victor of the people. The name became popular through Saint Nicholas, Bishop of Myra in Lycia, the inspiration for Santa Claus. The name Nikolaos () pre-existed the Bishop of Myra who became Saint Nicholas, by several centuries. The Athenian historian Thucydides mentions that in the second year of the Peloponnesian war (431 to 404 BC) between Sparta and Athens, the Spartans sent a delegation to the Persian king to ask for his help to fight the Athenians. He mentions the names of the Spartan delegates, Nikolaos was a delegate. The customary English version of spelling "Nicholas", using an "h", first came into use in the 12th century and has been firmly established since the Reformation, though "Nicolas" is occasionally used.
  In the United States, Nicholas  and its variations  was the 17th most popular male name given to babies in 2006. Roughly 0.7151% of the baby boys born that year, or 15,414, were given that name. It is decreasing in popularity, from a high in 1997, when 27,248 males in the United States were given the name Nicholas. That year was the most popular year for Nicholas since 1880, when U.S. records were kept for given names. A Christian (or ) is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. "Christian" derives from the Koine Greek word "Christós" (), a translation of the Biblical Hebrew term "mashiach". A surname or family name is a name added to a given name. In many cases, a surname is a family name and many dictionaries define "surname" as a synonym of "family name". In the Western Hemisphere, it is commonly synonymous with last name because it is usually placed at the end of a person's given name there.
candidates: 25 age bishop category christian coast culture day december family family name gift given name good history human language male given name name people person personal name plain procession proper noun province province of turkey range region relationship religion saint sea set sky stone structure surname synonym term three time town understanding variety year
answer: male given name