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Nels

#4,655 in 2025Boys' name

Variant of Nils

Nels has been given to 3,841 babies in the U.S. since 1880. In 2025 it ranked #4,655 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 1918, with 65 recorded.

Babies named Nels, 2025

1 in 151,000

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Nels: meaning, origin, and history

Variant of Nils

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Nels means

Nels is a variant of Nils.

Meaning behind the documented name family

The name developed through Nels → Nils → Nils → Νικόλαος. The family’s meaning is “victory + people”, recorded in Ancient Greek with the source elements νῑ́κη and λᾱός.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Nils.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 3,841 boys were recorded with the name Nels between 1880 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 65 in 1918; its best national rank was #309 in 1884.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #5,621 in 2020 to #4,655 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #6,208 in 2015 to #4,655 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.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Nels?

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
#4,655
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
104,451 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Nels 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 104,451 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Nels. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Nelss were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Nels was born before 1948 — so the typical Nels is around 77 today.

Median birth year
1948
About 77 years old
Biggest decade
1950s
11.8% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
9.3%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
1,862
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1950s — 11.8% of all recorded uses (454).

Is Nels 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
+721
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
+966
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
+1,553
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
1.57×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
33.8%
Peak was 1918 (65)
Years since peak
107
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
34.5% average annual change
Best rank ever
#309
1884

Spellings of Nels

Nels is not the most common spelling — Eli is, with 26.9% against Nels's 0.67%.

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 Nels is used

Across 1910–2025, Nels was most concentrated in Minnesota — about 1 in 14,286 boys, against 1 in 63,053 across all states with data. It was least common in Nebraska (1 in 100,000).

17 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Minnesota1 in 14,286
  2. 2North Dakota1 in 16,667
  3. 3Iowa1 in 50,000
  4. 4South Dakota1 in 50,000
  5. 5Washington1 in 50,000
  6. 6Wisconsin1 in 50,000
  7. 7California1 in 100,000
  8. 8Illinois1 in 100,000

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

Nels around the world

Where Nels 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
    2010–2019
    #6,489
    in 2019

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

Notable people named Nels

People whose public names include Nels, 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.

Nels by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#4,655
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 966
Best rank ever
#309
1884
Peak year
1918
65 that year
First recorded
1880
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
3,841
Count in 2025
22

Names similar to Nels

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

NielsNelloNelvinNelsonNellieNellyNellNeldonNeloNeltonNelseJewelsJuelsCharelsNellisNeldaDanielsEngelsMichaels

Names with a curve like Nels

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

LafayetteGodfreyRichmondCleveAlonzaAllisonIvyAdolphusSandersNapoleonLlewellynGiles

Sibling names for Nels

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 Nels

Top names of 1918, Nels's peak yearThe 1910s in fullOther names that peaked in 1884Boys' names starting with N