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Nils

#4,992 in 2025Boys' name

Victory + people, through Νικόλαος

Nils has been given to 3,083 babies in the U.S. since 1888. In 2025 it ranked #4,992 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 1970, with 48 recorded.

Babies named Nils, 2025

1 in 166,000

Nils over time, 1880–2025

Boys
020406018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Nils: meaning, origin, and history

Victory + people, through Νικόλαος

Norwegian and Swedish

What Nils means

Nils belongs to the name family reached through Nils → Nils → Νικόλαος. Its meaning is “victory + people”.

Origin, language, and formation

Nils is used in Danish, Estonian, Faroese, German, Latvian, Norwegian and Swedish. Its origins include Norwegian and Swedish.

Nils comes through Swedish Nils.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Nīcolāus, Nicholas, Nils and Νικόλαος.

Pronunciation and spelling

In German, Nils is pronounced /niːls/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 3,083 boys were recorded with the name Nils between 1888 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 48 in 1970; its best national rank was #889 in 1888.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #4,808 in 2020 to #4,992 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #4,839 in 2015 to #4,992 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 Nils?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 166,000
20 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 85,400
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#4,992
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
114,896 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Nils 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 114,896 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Nils. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Nilss were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Nils was born before 1969 — so the typical Nils is around 56 today.

Median birth year
1969
About 56 years old
Biggest decade
1960s
11.4% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
18.7%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
2,174
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1960s — 11.4% of all recorded uses (353).

Is Nils 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
+5
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
−184
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−153
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
1.00×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
41.7%
Peak was 1970 (48)
Years since peak
55
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
19.8% average annual change
Best rank ever
#889
1888

Spellings of Nils

Nils is not the most common spelling — Bill is, with 23.2% against Nils's 0.45%.

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 Nils is used

Across 1910–2025, Nils was most concentrated in New York — about 1 in 50,000 boys, against 1 in 104,762 across all states with data. It was least common in New Jersey (1 in —).

02 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1New York1 in 50,000
  2. 2California1 in 100,000
  3. 3Massachusetts1 in 100,000
  4. 4Minnesota1 in 100,000
  5. 5Washington1 in 100,000
  6. 6Illinois1 in —
  7. 7Michigan1 in —
  8. 8New Jersey1 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. Nils has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Nils around the world

Where Nils 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
    1996–2025
    #4,275
    in 2025
  • Scotland
    2012–2012
    #669
    in 2012
  • Ireland
    1992–1992
    #337
    in 1992
  • France
    1930–2025
    #581
    in 2025
  • Norway
    1880–2025
    #61
    in 2025
  • Canada
    1991–2024
    #3,231
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1948–2009
    #708
    in 2009

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

Notable people named Nils

People whose public names include Nils, 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.

Nils in other languages

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

NilNielsNiiloNikosNilesMykolaNicolaeNicolasNicolauNikolajNikolasNikolayNicholasNicolaasNicolinoNikolaosNikolausNisNíelsMiklósMikolaNickelNicolòNiilas

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

Nils by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#4,992
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 184
Best rank ever
#889
1888
Peak year
1970
48 that year
First recorded
1888
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
3,083
Count in 2025
20

Names similar to Nils

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

NileNilesNiloNilanNilayNilsonNilNileshNiltonNilavNeilsNilmar

Names with a curve like Nils

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

BlasAnselmoFranzModestoEusebioFlorentinoAmadorFlorencioDelfinoEdmundoDoranCipriano

Sibling names for Nils

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 Nils

Top names of 1970, Nils's peak yearThe 1970s in fullOther names that peaked in 1888Boys' names starting with NNorwegian Boy NamesUncommon Swedish Boy Names