Nels
A Scandinavian diminutive form of Nicholas, derived from the Greek meaning "victor over people".
Name Census estimates that about 1,915 living Americans carry the first name Nels. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Nels today is around 52 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Nels births was 1918 (65 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Nels. 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.
People living today
1.9K
~ 1 in 178,984 Americans
Peak year
1918
65 babies that year
Average age
52
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,366
Tracked since 1880
Census
Nels in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,850 people with the first name Nels, which placed it at #7,974 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
#7,974
National first-name rank
People counted
1.9K
1,850 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
94.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Nels
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Nels is White at 94.3%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (1.8%) and Hispanic (1.7%). 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 Nels 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 Nels at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White94.3% · 1,744
- Two or more races1.8% · 33
- Hispanic or Latino1.7% · 31
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.2% · 23
- Black or African American0.7% · 13
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.3% · 6
Popularity
Nels: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Nels from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 454 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Nels 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 Nels during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Nels' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 10 states and territories. Minnesota, California, Wisconsin recorded the most babies named Nels, while South Dakota, Nebraska, North Dakota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 74 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Nels
The name Nels is a Scandinavian variant of the name Niels, which originates from the Old Norse name Nikolás. This name can be traced back to the Greek name Nikolaos, which is derived from the elements "nikos" meaning "victory" and "laos" meaning "people."
In the early Middle Ages, the name Nikolás spread throughout Northern Europe, where it evolved into various forms like Niels, Nils, and Nels. The name Nels became particularly popular in parts of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. It was often given to children as a nod to the veneration of Saint Nicholas, the 4th-century Christian saint known as the patron saint of children.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Nels can be found in the Icelandic Sagas, a collection of medieval Norse literature. The name appears in the Grettis Saga, which dates back to the 13th century and tells the story of the outlaw Grettir Ásmundarson, who had a close friend named Nels.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Nels. One of the earliest was Nels Andersson (1525-1595), a Swedish pastor and reformer who played a crucial role in the establishment of Lutheranism in Sweden during the Protestant Reformation.
Another prominent figure was Nels Hakvin (1561-1624), a Norwegian mathematician and astronomer who made significant contributions to the field of celestial navigation. He is best known for his work on the calculation of a ship's position using celestial observations.
In the 19th century, Nels Nelson (1863-1938) was a Norwegian-American botanist and plant explorer who made important discoveries in the field of plant taxonomy. He conducted extensive research on the flora of the western United States and Mexico.
The name Nels also gained popularity in the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, particularly among Scandinavian immigrants. One notable American bearing the name was Nels Andrew Nelson Crellin (1834-1915), a Norwegian-American engineer and entrepreneur who founded the N. A. Nelson Manufacturing Company, which produced agricultural machinery.
Finally, Nels Elsen (1887-1957) was a Norwegian-American painter and illustrator known for his landscape paintings and illustrations for books and magazines. His works captured the natural beauty of the American West and gained him recognition as a prominent artist of the early 20th century.
People
Nels + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Nels 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
Nels: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Nels?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,915 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Nels 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 178,984 US residents.
Is Nels a common name?
We classify Nels as "Rare". It ranks above 93.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,819 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Nels most popular?
The single biggest year for Nels was 1918, when 65 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Nels is about 52 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Nels in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,850 people with the name Nels, or 0.61 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #7,974 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 Nels 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 Nels?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Nels appears almost entirely male. Of the 1,848 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 Nels?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Nels is White at 94.3%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (1.8%) and Hispanic (1.7%). 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 Nels most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Nels in the 2020 Census, accounting for 94.3% (1,744 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 Nels in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Nels a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Nels 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 Nels still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Nels 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 Nels 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 common is the name Nels?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.