Nial
Nial was last recorded in 2024, when 11 babies were given it; 144 Americans have been recorded with it between 1915 and 2024 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Nial by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Nial?
Unranked in 2025
Its last boys’ rank on record is #7,603, in 2024; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
11 babies in 2024, the peak
Nial peaked in 2024, when 11 boys were given it, #7,603 among boys’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 11 | #7,603 | 6.4 |
| 2023 | 7 | #10,478 | 4.1 |
| 2022 | 6 | #11,874 | 3.4 |
| 2021 | 5 | #13,495 | 2.9 |
| 2020 | 8 | #9,296 | 4.6 |
| 2018 | 5 | #13,538 | 2.8 |
| 2017 | 6 | #11,773 | 3.2 |
| 2015 | 5 | #13,469 | 2.6 |
| 2007 | 5 | #13,816 | 2.4 |
| 2001 | 5 | #11,784 | 2.6 |
Every recorded year (24)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 | 7 | #7,038 | 3.5 |
| 1989 | 6 | #7,626 | 3.0 |
| 1985 | 5 | #7,265 | 2.7 |
| 1968 | 6 | #3,995 | 3.5 |
| 1960 | 5 | #4,429 | 2.3 |
| 1957 | 5 | #4,374 | 2.3 |
| 1954 | 5 | #4,196 | 2.5 |
| 1952 | 7 | #3,292 | 3.6 |
| 1928 | 8 | #3,279 | 7.2 |
| 1926 | 5 | #4,629 | 4.5 |
| 1923 | 6 | #4,107 | 5.5 |
| 1922 | 5 | #4,770 | 4.6 |
| 1921 | 5 | #4,781 | 4.5 |
| 1915 | 6 | #3,709 | 7.1 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Nial a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Nial has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 24 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Nial: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Nial, and how old are they?
An estimated 100 Americans named Nial and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (69% of everyone recorded); the median is 11 years old and half are between 5 and 37. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 256 people named Nial (13 women and girls, 243 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 69 born in the U.S. The Census count is 3.7 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census records the name people give, which for many is the short form Nial rather than the name on their birth record, and it counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out.
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).
How common is the spelling Nial?
Nial is a less common spelling of Niall: SSA has recorded 144 Nial and 2,094 Niall since 1880.
Of these 7 names spelled alike, given to 5,189 babies since 1880, Nial is the sixth most given (2.8% of them). In 2025 none of their 193 babies recorded by SSA was a Nial (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 Nial and names like it
- Compare Nial and NiallBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sNial peaked in 2024.
- The top names of 2024The year the most babies were named Nial.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Nial alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with NMost given first.