Name Awesome

Neils

Boys' name

From German Neils; literal meaning unconfirmed

Neils has been given to 78 babies in the U.S. since 1916. 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 1918, with 8 recorded.

Babies named Neils, 1988

1 in 739,000

Neils over time, 1880–2025

Boys
0246818801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Neils: meaning, origin, and history

From German Neils; literal meaning unconfirmed

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Neils means

Neils is a given name.

Dictionary etymologyReferences, data & attribution

Borrowed from German Neils or, alternatively, a patronymic from the personal name Neil.

Excerpt from Wiktionary: Neils (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Origin, language, and formation

Neils is used in English.

Neils comes through German Neils.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 78 boys were recorded with the name Neils between 1916 and 1988. Its highest annual count was 8 in 1918; its best national rank was #3,223 in 1948.

How common is Neils?

Neils had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 1988, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 1988
1 in 739,000
5 of 3,694,212 births
Among boys only
1 in 383,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 1988
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
512,128 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Neils 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 1988 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 512,128 children born in 1988 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Neils. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Neilss were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Neils was born before 1942 — so the typical Neils is around 83 today.

Median birth year
1942
About 83 years old
Biggest decade
1910s
23.1% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
34.6%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
32
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1910s — 23.1% of all recorded uses (18).

Is Neils 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 1918 (8)
Years since peak
107
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
30.0% average annual change
Best rank ever
#3,223
1948

Spellings of Neils

Neils is not the most common spelling — Neil is, with 53.9% against Neils's 0.04%.

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.

Neils around the world

Where Neils 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.

  • France
    2013–2013
    #3,961
    in 2013

Popularity data from Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0.

Neils 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
#3,223
1948
Peak year
1918
8 that year
First recorded
1916
Last recorded
1988
All-time count
78
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Neils

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

NeilanNeitanNeikoNeimarNeizanNeimanNeilsonNeithanNeimaNeimiahNeillNeithenNeileshNilsNeilpatrickNeil

Sibling names for Neils

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 Neils

Top names of 1918, Neils's peak yearThe 1910s in fullOther names that peaked in 1948Boys' names starting with N