Name Awesome

Nat

Boys' name

Short form of Nathan

Nat has been given to 2,162 babies in the U.S. since 1880. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1915, with 61 recorded.

Babies named Nat, 2023

1 in 663,000

Nat over time, 1880–2025

Boys
02040608018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Nat: meaning, origin, and history

Short form of Nathan

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Nat means

Nat is a short form of Nathan.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Nat is used in English.

Another recorded pronunciation is /ˈnæt/ for Nat.

Meaning behind the documented name family

The name developed through Nat → Nathan. The family’s meaning is “gave”, recorded in English with the source elements natán.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Nathan, Nathanael, Nathaniel, Natasha, Natalie and Natalia.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Nat is pronounced /næt/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 2,162 boys were recorded with the name Nat between 1880 and 2023. Its highest annual count was 61 in 1915; its best national rank was #475 in 1894.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Nat?

Nat had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2023, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2023
1 in 663,000
5 of 3,314,783 births
Among boys only
1 in 342,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2023
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
459,528 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Nat sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2023 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 459,528 children born in 2023 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Nat. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Nats were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Nat was born before 1927 — so the typical Nat is around 98 today.

Median birth year
1927
About 98 years old
Biggest decade
1910s
20.5% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
0.46%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
554
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1910s — 20.5% of all recorded uses (444).

Is Nat rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 1915 (61)
Years since peak
110
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
40.7% average annual change
Best rank ever
#475
1894

Where Nat is used

Across 1910–2025, Nat was most concentrated in New York — about 1 in 33,333 boys, against 1 in 129,788 across all states with data. It was least common in Virginia (1 in —).

03 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1New York1 in 33,333
  2. 2California1 in —
  3. 3Kentucky1 in —
  4. 4Louisiana1 in —
  5. 5North Carolina1 in —
  6. 6Tennessee1 in —
  7. 7Texas1 in —
  8. 8Virginia1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Nat has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Nat around the world

Where Nat ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    2002–2017
    #4,812
    in 2017
  • France
    2005–2006
    #5,044
    in 2006
  • South Australia
    1970–1999
    #539
    in 1999

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Notable people named Nat

People whose public names include Nat, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Nat by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#475
1894
Peak year
1915
61 that year
First recorded
1880
Last recorded
2023
All-time count
2,162
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Nat

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

NateNatanNathenNationNathonNatanaelNataleNatureNathanelNatnaelNatanielNatanelNathynNatalieNatsuNathinDonatNatividadNathanialNathNatashaNatalioNathanealNathanael

Names with a curve like Nat

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Nat, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

MelvilleOdieGerhardErnstAdelbertVernieManleyOralBurleyLudwigOcieVivian

Sibling names for Nat

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Nat

Top names of 1915, Nat's peak yearThe 1910s in fullOther names that peaked in 1894Boys' names starting with N