Nathaniel — #144 US boys' name

What the Data Says About Nathaniel

The Social Security Administration has registered 284,481 babies named Nathaniel between 1880 and 2024, spanning 145 consecutive years of U.S. birth records. As a boy's name, Nathaniel currently holds the #144 rank among boys for 2024. The name reached its historical peak in 2002, when 6,813 babies received it in a single year.

Decade-level aggregation shows that Nathaniel performed strongest in the 2000s, accumulating 64,259 births during that ten-year window. Across the 15 decades of recorded activity, Nathaniel shows a clear decline from its mid-century high. Geographically, the name is most concentrated in California, which accounts for 29,100 births — the largest state-level total in the dataset — followed by Texas and New York. In total, SSA state-level files list Nathaniel in 51 of the 51 U.S. reporting jurisdictions.

No etymological entry is currently available for Nathaniel in our reference dataset. These figures derive from SSA's annual national and state-level name files, which include any name appearing at least five times in a given year or state-year; names below that threshold are suppressed for privacy and therefore excluded from the totals shown here. The 284,481 total represents a lower bound — actual usage may be higher in years or states where the count fell below the disclosure floor. This page is provided for informational and research purposes only and does not constitute personal, legal, or naming advice.