Nahuel
Nahuel was given to 5 boys in 2025, #13,298 among boys’ names; 246 Americans have been recorded with it since 2001 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Nahuel by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Nahuel mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Nahuel is “a male given name from Mapudungun.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Nahuel?
#13,298 among boys’ names, 2025
Nahuel fell from #7,386 in 2015 to #13,298 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 5.7 to 2.9 per million.
21 babies in 2003, the peak
Nahuel peaked in 2003, when 21 boys were given it, #4,064 among boys’ names. The 5 births of 2025 are 24% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 5 | #13,298 | 2.9 |
| 2023 | 8 | #9,474 | 4.7 |
| 2022 | 14 | #6,375 | 8.0 |
| 2021 | 10 | #7,969 | 5.7 |
| 2020 | 7 | #10,258 | 4.1 |
| 2019 | 7 | #10,472 | 3.9 |
| 2018 | 16 | #5,704 | 8.8 |
| 2017 | 12 | #6,977 | 6.5 |
| 2016 | 9 | #8,604 | 4.7 |
| 2015 | 11 | #7,386 | 5.7 |
Every recorded year (22)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 7 | #10,386 | 3.7 |
| 2011 | 9 | #8,551 | 4.7 |
| 2010 | 6 | #11,742 | 3.1 |
| 2009 | 15 | #5,995 | 7.6 |
| 2008 | 12 | #7,059 | 5.9 |
| 2007 | 13 | #6,499 | 6.3 |
| 2006 | 12 | #6,765 | 5.8 |
| 2005 | 14 | #5,782 | 7.0 |
| 2004 | 15 | #5,407 | 7.6 |
| 2003 | 21 | #4,064 | 10.6 |
| 2002 | 15 | #5,058 | 7.7 |
| 2001 | 8 | #8,065 | 4.1 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Nahuel a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Nahuel has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 22 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Nahuel: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Nahuel, and how old are they?
An estimated 243 Americans named Nahuel and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 17 years old and half are between 8 and 21. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 312 people named Nahuel (8 women and girls, 304 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 202 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1.5 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Names spelled alike
Of these 4 names spelled alike, given to 2,367 babies since 1880, Nahuel is the third most given (10% of them). In 2025 it was given to 5 of their 387 babies (1.3%), the fourth most given that year.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Nahuel
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Nahuel and names like it
- Compare Nahuel and NaelBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sNahuel peaked in 2003.
- Florida’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Nahuel since 1910.
- The top names of 2003The year the most babies were named Nahuel.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Nahuel alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with NMost given first.