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Nathanial

#3,487 in 2025Boys' name

Meaning unconfirmed; recorded in an 1884 name reference

Nathanial has been given to 10,578 babies in the U.S. since 1880. In 2025 it ranked #3,487 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 1999, with 371 recorded.

Babies named Nathanial, 2025

1 in 100,000

Nathanial over time, 1880–2025

Boys
010020030040018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Nathanial: meaning, origin, and history

Meaning unconfirmed; recorded in an 1884 name reference

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Nathanial means

Nathanial is a given name.

The naming story behind Nathanial

Charlotte M. Yonge’s 1884 History of Christian Names includes the exact spelling Nathanial in its glossary. The entry labels it masculine and points to printed page(s) 25.

The glossary’s abbreviated description reads: “Wall. Heb. gift of God”. This is the historical author’s wording, including its language abbreviations and any proposed interpretation. It is presented as historical evidence, not as a verified modern translation. Victorian classifications and root explanations can differ from later linguistic research.

For Nathanial, the current short meaning therefore remains unconfirmed. Establishing its modern etymology requires a current reference that documents the exact form and its relationship to the proposed earlier words.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 10,578 boys were recorded with the name Nathanial between 1880 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 371 in 1999; its best national rank was #543 in 1998.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #3,623 in 2020 to #3,487 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #2,514 in 2015 to #3,487 in 2025.

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.

How common is Nathanial?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 100,000
33 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 51,800
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#3,487
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
69,634 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Nathanial 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 2025 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 69,634 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Nathanial. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Nathanials were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Nathanial was born before 1995 — so the typical Nathanial is around 30 today.

Median birth year
1995
About 30 years old
Biggest decade
1990s
28.3% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
32.5%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
9,981
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1990s — 28.3% of all recorded uses (2,997).

Is Nathanial 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
+270
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
+136
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
−973
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.66×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
8.9%
Peak was 1999 (371)
Years since peak
26
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
17.0% average annual change
Best rank ever
#543
1998

Spellings of Nathanial

Nathanial is not the most common spelling — Nathaniel is, with 89.1% against Nathanial's 3.3%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Nathanial is used

Across 1910–2025, Nathanial was most concentrated in Washington — about 1 in 10,000 boys, against 1 in 23,879 across all states with data. It was least common in Mississippi (1 in —).

010 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Washington1 in 10,000
  2. 2Indiana1 in 11,111
  3. 3Wisconsin1 in 11,111
  4. 4Oregon1 in 12,500
  5. 5Arizona1 in 14,286
  6. 6Colorado1 in 14,286
  7. 7Minnesota1 in 14,286
  8. 8Missouri1 in 14,286

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. Nathanial has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Nathanial around the world

Where Nathanial 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
    1996–2024
    #3,689
    in 2024
  • Canada
    1991–2022
    #1,972
    in 2022
  • South Australia
    1972–2013
    #754
    in 2013

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Nathanial in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Nathanial. Linked forms have their own page here.

Nathaniel

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Nathanial by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#3,487
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 136
Best rank ever
#543
1998
Peak year
1999
371 that year
First recorded
1880
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
10,578
Count in 2025
33

Names similar to Nathanial

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

NathanaelNatanaelNathenNathenialNatividadNathanelNathanielNatanielDanialNathanealMarcialNathaneilNateEzekialNatnaelNatanNathanyelNathanuelNatanelNatalieNationNathonNathanyalNatale

Names with a curve like Nathanial

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

RigobertoJaronNigelEstevanGarretDonteJovanBrendonTreverGarettRashawnDonavan

Sibling names for Nathanial

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 Nathanial

Top names of 1999, Nathanial's peak yearThe 1990s in fullOther names that peaked in 1998Boys' names starting with N