People

• Aleksey Nikolayev (b. 1979), an Uzbekistani football player
• Alene Nikolayev, a Bulgarian civic society leader
• Andrian Nikolayev, a Soviet cosmonaut
• Leonid Nikolaev, a Russian communist, the assassin of Sergei Kirov
• Leonid Vladimirovich Nikolayev, a Russian pianist, composer, and pedagogue
• Mikhail Nikolayev, a Soviet army officer and Hero of the Soviet Union
• Tatiana Nikolayeva, a Russian pianist
• Vasily Nikolayev, a Soviet soldier and Hero of the Soviet Union
• Yelena Nikolayeva, a Russian race walker
• Yevgeni Nikolayev, a Soviet army officer and Hero of the Soviet Union

Places

• Nikolayev (crater), a lunar crater
• Mykolaiv, known as Nikolayev in Russian, a city in Ukraine