Nero
Nero was given to 21 boys in 2025, #4,814 among boys’ names; 526 Americans have been recorded with it since 1914 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Nero by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Nero mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Nero is “a male given name from Latin, more common in fiction than in real life.”
Borrowed from Latin Nerō.
/ˈniːroʊ/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Nero?
#4,814 among boys’ names, 2025
Nero fell from #4,501 in 2015 to #4,814 in 2025 among boys’ names, although its share of boys born rose from 11.5 to 12.3 per million.
39 babies in 2023, the peak
Nero peaked in 2023, when 39 boys were given it, #3,158 among boys’ names. The 21 births of 2025 are 54% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 21 | #4,814 | 12.3 |
| 2024 | 29 | #3,862 | 16.8 |
| 2023 | 39 | #3,158 | 22.8 |
| 2022 | 25 | #4,253 | 14.3 |
| 2021 | 33 | #3,467 | 18.9 |
| 2020 | 14 | #6,190 | 8.1 |
| 2019 | 30 | #3,688 | 16.7 |
| 2018 | 23 | #4,445 | 12.7 |
| 2017 | 26 | #4,058 | 14.0 |
| 2016 | 18 | #5,259 | 9.5 |
Every recorded year (42)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 22 | #4,501 | 11.5 |
| 2014 | 18 | #5,197 | 9.4 |
| 2013 | 21 | #4,567 | 11.1 |
| 2012 | 16 | #5,641 | 8.4 |
| 2011 | 19 | #4,932 | 10.0 |
| 2010 | 12 | #6,964 | 6.3 |
| 2009 | 9 | #8,781 | 4.5 |
| 2007 | 7 | #10,546 | 3.4 |
| 2006 | 7 | #10,331 | 3.4 |
| 2005 | 6 | #11,061 | 3.0 |
| 2004 | 6 | #10,915 | 3.0 |
| 1971 | 6 | #4,750 | 3.4 |
| 1970 | 6 | #4,571 | 3.2 |
| 1967 | 5 | #4,372 | 2.9 |
| 1965 | 5 | #4,271 | 2.7 |
| 1958 | 5 | #4,341 | 2.4 |
| 1953 | 5 | #4,188 | 2.5 |
| 1951 | 5 | #4,090 | 2.7 |
| 1947 | 5 | #4,100 | 2.7 |
| 1936 | 6 | #3,427 | 5.8 |
| 1935 | 6 | #3,535 | 5.8 |
| 1933 | 6 | #3,531 | 6.1 |
| 1926 | 5 | #4,628 | 4.5 |
| 1925 | 5 | #4,703 | 4.5 |
| 1924 | 7 | #3,738 | 6.2 |
| 1923 | 5 | #4,693 | 4.6 |
| 1920 | 7 | #3,715 | 6.6 |
| 1919 | 7 | #3,640 | 7.1 |
| 1918 | 10 | #2,824 | 9.9 |
| 1917 | 8 | #3,124 | 8.6 |
| 1916 | 6 | #3,767 | 6.7 |
| 1914 | 5 | #3,600 | 7.6 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Nero a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Nero has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 42 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Nero: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Nero, and how old are they?
An estimated 431 Americans named Nero and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (82% of everyone recorded); the median is 9 years old and half are between 4 and 14. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 416 people named Nero (20 women and girls, 396 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 282 born in the U.S. The Census count is 48% above 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 3 names spelled alike, given to 3,254 babies since 1880, Nero is the third most given (16% of them). In 2025 it was given to 21 of their 59 babies (36%), the second 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 Nero
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 Nero and names like it
- Compare Nero and NeryBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sNero peaked in 2023.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Nero since 1910.
- Latin namesWiktionary’s origin for Nero: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2023The year the most babies were named Nero.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Nero alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with NMost given first.