Nathaniel
A masculine given name originating from the Hebrew language meaning "gift of God".
Name Census estimates that about 250,327 living Americans carry the first name Nathaniel. It sits at #144 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Nathaniel today is around 31 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Nathaniel births was 2002 (6,829 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Nathaniel. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Nathaniel with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Nathaniel is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 1,162 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
250K
~ 1 in 1,369 Americans
Peak year
2002
6,829 babies that year
Average age
31
years old
2024 SSA rank
#144
Tracked since 1880
Census
Nathaniel in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 189,976 people with the first name Nathaniel, which placed it at #292 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#292
National first-name rank
People counted
190K
189,976 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
62.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
56.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Nathaniel
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Nathaniel is White at 56.0%. The next largest groups are Black (19.0%) and Hispanic (15.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Nathaniel described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Nathaniel at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White56.0% · 106,298
- Black or African American19.0% · 36,075
- Hispanic or Latino15.2% · 28,850
- Two or more races5.8% · 10,961
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.2% · 6,134
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 1,658
Gender
Gender distribution for Nathaniel
Out of the 285,643 babies given the name Nathaniel since 1880, 99.6% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Nathaniel as a male name
- Ranked #144 in 2024
- 2,511 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2002 (6,813 births)
Nathaniel as a female name
- Ranked #14,794 in 2022
- 6 female births in 2022
- Peak: 1986 (37 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Nathaniel appears almost entirely male. Of the 189,977 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Nathaniel: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Nathaniel from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 64,387 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Nathaniel by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Nathaniel during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Nathaniels live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Nathaniel, while Wyoming, Vermont, North Dakota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 5,495 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Nathaniel
The name Nathaniel has its origins in the Hebrew language. It is derived from the Hebrew words "Natan" meaning "given" and "El" meaning "God". The full meaning of Nathaniel translates to "gift of God" or "God has given".
The name is thought to have first appeared in the Old Testament of the Bible. Nathaniel was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ, as mentioned in the Gospel of John. Some biblical scholars believe that Nathaniel was another name for the apostle Bartholomew.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Nathaniel can be found in the writings of the Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria, who lived from around 20 BC to 50 AD. Philo mentioned a Nathaniel as one of the sons of Semei in his work "On the Virtues".
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals named Nathaniel. One of the most famous was Nathaniel Hawthorne, the renowned American novelist and short story writer who lived from 1804 to 1864. His works include "The Scarlet Letter" and "The House of the Seven Gables".
Another famous Nathaniel was Sir Nathaniel Dance, an English portrait painter who lived from 1735 to 1811. He was a member of the Royal Academy of Arts and painted portraits of King George III and other members of the British royal family.
In the field of science, Nathaniel Bowditch was an American mathematician and astronomer who lived from 1773 to 1838. He wrote "The New American Practical Navigator", which became a standard reference work for sailors.
Nathaniel Philbrick, born in 1956, is a contemporary American historian and author. He has written several books on maritime history, including the award-winning "In the Heart of the Sea" and "Mayflower".
Finally, Nathaniel Rateliff is an American singer-songwriter and the lead singer of the folk rock band Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats. He was born in 1978 and has gained popularity in recent years for his soulful and distinctive voice.
People
Nathaniel + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Nathaniel as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with N
Other first names starting with N with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Nathaniel: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Nathaniel?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 250,327 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Nathaniel going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 1,369 US residents.
Is Nathaniel a common name?
We classify Nathaniel as "Common". It ranks above 99.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 285,643 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Nathaniel most popular?
The single biggest year for Nathaniel was 2002, when 6,829 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Nathaniel is about 31 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Nathaniel in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 189,976 people with the name Nathaniel, or 62.90 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #292 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Nathaniel in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Nathaniel?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Nathaniel appears almost entirely male. Of the 189,977 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Nathaniel?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Nathaniel is White at 56.0%. The next largest groups are Black (19.0%) and Hispanic (15.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Nathaniel most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Nathaniel in the 2020 Census, accounting for 56.0% (106,298 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Nathaniel in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Nathaniel a male name?
Yes, 99.6% of people registered as Nathaniel in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Nathaniel still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Nathaniel in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Nathaniel can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many Americans are named Nathaniel?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.