How Many People Are Named Nathaniel?
people named Nathaniel are alive in the United States today (estimate)
About 1 in 1,374 people in the US has this name
Based on 288,265 babies named Nathaniel in Social Security records from 1880 to 2025, and the share of each birth year still alive in 2025.
Popularity Rank
⭐ Uncommon
Peak Year
6,829 births
Trend
Declining (last 10 years)
📖 Name Origin & Meaning
Meaning:
Variant of NATHANAEL. It has been regularly used in the English-speaking world since the Protestant Reformation. This has been the most popular spelling, even though the spelling Nathanael is found in most versions of the New Testament. The American writer Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864), author of 'The Scarlet Letter', was a famous bearer of this name.
Source of the meaning, origin, pronunciation and related names: Behind the Name.
Same Sound, Other Spellings
These names are pronounced like Nathaniel in English. Counting Nathaniel and these spellings together, about 270,133 people alive in the US have the name.
⚧ Gender Distribution
Almost all of the babies given the name Nathaniel (99.6%) were boys.
👥 Age Distribution
The average person named Nathaniel alive today is about 29 years old, and 58% are under 30. Half of them were between 16 and 39 in 2025.
📈 Popularity Over Time
Nathaniel first appears in the records in 1880 and was given most often in 2002, to 6,829 babies. In 2025, 2,565 babies got the name. Over the last ten years, the number each year has been falling.
Babies given the name each year, 1880 to 2025
🏆 Rank History
Nathaniel never made the top 10 boys' names. Its best rank was #60, in 1998, and it was in the top 100 for 38 years, 1978 to 2015. In 2025 it ranked #140.
| Boys | |
|---|---|
| Rank in 2025 | #140 |
| Best rank | #60 (1998) |
| Years in the top 100 | 38 (1978 to 2015) |
| Rank in its biggest decade | #65 in the 2000s |
📍 State-Wise Distribution
People named Nathaniel alive today, by the state where they were born (estimate; state records start in 1910).
More people named Nathaniel were born in California than in any other state: about 28,475 of those alive today. Compared with the national rate in the same years, Nathaniel was given 2.1 times as often in District of Columbia, 2.1 times in South Carolina and 1.4 times in Alaska.
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