Neils
Neils was last recorded in 1988, when 5 babies were given it; 78 Americans have been recorded with it between 1916 and 1988 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Neils by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Neils?
Unranked in 2025
Its last boys’ rank on record is #8,139, in 1988; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
8 babies in 1918, the peak
Neils peaked in 1918, when 8 boys were given it, #3,290 among boys’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 | 5 | #8,139 | 2.6 |
| 1982 | 5 | #7,042 | 2.8 |
| 1980 | 7 | #5,328 | 3.9 |
| 1972 | 5 | #5,515 | 3.1 |
| 1968 | 5 | #4,556 | 2.9 |
| 1953 | 5 | #4,185 | 2.5 |
| 1948 | 7 | #3,223 | 4.0 |
| 1942 | 5 | #3,914 | 3.6 |
| 1937 | 5 | #3,876 | 4.7 |
| 1926 | 5 | #4,627 | 4.5 |
Every recorded year (14)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1922 | 6 | #4,165 | 5.5 |
| 1918 | 8 | #3,290 | 7.9 |
| 1917 | 5 | #4,390 | 5.4 |
| 1916 | 5 | #4,312 | 5.6 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Neils a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Neils has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 14 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Neils: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Neils, and how old are they?
An estimated 34 Americans named Neils and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026, too few to state an age range. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 193 people named Neils (8 women and girls, 185 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 38 born in the U.S. The Census count is 5.1 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 2 names spelled alike, given to 3,919 babies since 1880, Neils is the second most given (2.0% of them). In 2025 none of their 22 babies recorded by SSA was a Neils (SSA lists a name only with 5 or more babies of one sex).
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.
More about Neils and names like it
- Compare Neils and NelsBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1910sNeils peaked in 1918.
- The top names of 1918The year the most babies were named Neils.
- Names starting with NMost given first.