Agios Nikolaos was settled in the late Bronze Age by Dorian occupants of Lato, at a time when the security of the Lato hill fort became a lesser concern and access to the harbour at Agios Nikolaos became sufficiently attractive.
The name Agios Nikolaos means Saint Nicholas, and its stress lies on the second syllable of the word "Nikolaos". Agios Nikolaos or Ayios Nikolaos (alternative transliterations of the Greek is observably a common place name in Greece and Cyprus, since Saint Nicholas is the patron saint of sailors and of all of Greece
