Nation
#4,651 in 2025UnisexBoys' nameGirls' nameMeaning not yet documented
Nation has been given to 499 babies in the U.S. since 1997. In 2025 it ranked #4,651 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2021, with 44 recorded. It's used for both sexes: 85% boys, 15% girls all-time.
Babies named Nation, 2025
1 in 151,000
Nation over time, 1880–2025
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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.
Girls or boys — Nation over time
In 2025, Nation went to 24% girls and 76% boys.
A sex is only published in years it reached five applications, so a stretch at 0% or 100% means the other side stayed under that floor — not that it was never used.
How common is Nation?
Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.
- Among all babies, 2025
- 1 in 151,000
- 22 of 3,315,165 births
- Among boys only
- 1 in 77,600
- <0.01% of boys
- Rank, 2025
- #4,651
- of 13,926 boys’ names in use
- Coin-flip room size
- 104,451 kids
- Even odds of a second one
Where Nation sits on the popularity scale
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.
Put another way: gather 104,451 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Nation. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.
When Nations were born
Half of everyone ever recorded as Nation was born before 2018 — so the typical Nation is around 7 today.
- Biggest decade
- 2020s
- 42.9% of all use
- Born in the last 25 years
- 96.2%
- A modern name
- Recorded since 1950
- 424
- People you could plausibly meet
2020s — 42.9% of all recorded uses (182).
Is Nation 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
- +174
- Places climbed
- Rank vs 5 years ago
- −1,780
- Places dropped
- Rank vs 10 years ago
- +5,636
- Places climbed
- Births vs 10 years ago
- 3.14×
- More babies than then
- Share of its own peak
- 50.0%
- Peak was 2021 (44)
- Years since peak
- 4
- Years
- Year-to-year steadiness
- Volatile
- 40.4% average annual change
Spellings of Nation
Nation is not the most common spelling — Nathan is, with 78.7% against Nation's 0.06%.
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 Nation is used
Across 1910–2025, Nation was most concentrated in California — about 1 in — boys, against 1 in 3,486,540 across all states with data.
Most concentrated
- 1California1 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. Nation has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.
Nation around the world
Where Nation 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.
- Canada2010–2010#2,676in 2010
- South Australia2013–2013#754in 2013
Popularity data from Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.
Nation by the numbers
The raw record for each sex the name is used for.
As a boy's name
Names similar to Nation
Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.
Sibling names for Nation
Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.