Nathaniel

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Primarily a boy's name · 100% boys

Origin: Hebrew

Meaning

Nathaniel is an English variant of the biblical Hebrew name Nathanael. It can be a given or surname.

From Wikipedia

Nathaniel first appears in the data in 1996 and has been recorded in 21 different years as a boy's name. Its single biggest year was 2012 with 536 babies (rank #119 that year). It was not in the 2024 data. The name has been declining over the last five years.

Numerology of Nathaniel

In Pythagorean numerology, every letter has a value from 1 to 9. Adding the letters of Nathaniel yields these three numbers — a playful read on the name's character.

9,156
Total babies (all years)
21
Years in the data
536
Peak in a single year

Popularity Over Time — Boys

Famous people named Nathaniel

Stories about the name Nathaniel

Hawthorne. We're both English teachers. Nathaniel Hawthorne, author of The Scarlet Letter. We figured the literary cred outweighed the teasing risk. He's eleven and hasn't read it yet. We're waiting.

— Margaret, Salem MA, 2013

Nate, Nat, Nathaniel — we wanted options at different ages. He's currently Nate. He'll get there.

— Carol, Cincinnati OH, 2018

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→ See names similar to Nathaniel  ·  Compare Nathaniel with another name →  ·  Popular names of the 2010s  ·  Boys names starting with N

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Year-by-Year Detail

Rank is among all boys' names registered that year.

Year Babies Rank
1996339#126
1997337#123
1998330#124
1999409#115
2000332#126
2001348#124
2002394#120
2003441#116
2004483#115
2005453#120
2006394#137
2007419#130
2008468#120
2009498#117
2010496#128
2011535#119
2012536#119
2013469#127
2014482#129
2015517#124
2016476#129