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Niels

Gender

Male

Origin

Norse
son of Niel
Danish

Syllables

1

Alternate Spellings and Variants of Niels

Pronunciation

ni(e)-ls

More about the name

Niels is a male given name, equivalent to Nicholas, which is common in Denmark, Belgium, Norway (formerly) and the Netherlands. The Norwegian and Swedish variant is Nils. The name is a developed short form of Nicholas or Greek Nikolaos, after Saint Nicholas.
Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Popularity in the USA

  • Boys: peak in 1957 (rank #1410, 31 births); most recent 2025 (rank #5861, 15 births)
Births by year in the USA
YearBoys
202515
202413
20237
202218
202110
202012
201914
20187
201714
201621

Top girl names · Top boy names in the USA (2025)

Source: U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA), national baby names data (public domain). This site is not affiliated with or endorsed by the SSA. Data years: 1880 to 2025. Original data

Popularity in England and Wales

  • Boys: peak in 1998 (rank #1643, 7 births); most recent 2016 (rank #4020, 4 births)
Births by year in England and Wales
YearBoys
2025–
2024–
2023–
2022–
2021–
2020–
2019–
2018–
2017–
20164

Top girl names · Top boy names in England and Wales (2025)

Source: Office for National Statistics (ONS), Baby names in England and Wales. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Data years: 1996 to 2025. Original data · Licence

Popularity in France

  • Boys: peak in 2012 (rank #350, 182 births); most recent 2023 (rank #697, 60 births)
Births by year in France
YearBoys
202360
202252
202154
202067
201975
201866
201773
201673
201575
201492

Top girl names · Top boy names in France (2023)

Source: INSEE, Fichier des prénoms (last updated 8 July 2024), used under the Licence Ouverte / Open Licence 2.0. Changes: names are shown in title case, and spellings that differ only by accents are counted together. Data years: 1900 to 2023. Original data · Licence