Niall
Niall was given to 96 boys in 2025, #1,706 among boys’ names; 2,094 Americans have been recorded with it since 1955 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 2,030 Americans named Niall and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 14 years old and half are between 6 and 30.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Niall by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Niall mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Niall is “a male given name from Irish or Scottish Gaelic used in Ireland and Scotland since the Middle Ages.”
Borrowed from Irish Niall or Scottish Gaelic Niall, ultimately from Old Irish Níall, of uncertain original meaning. Suggestions include nél (“cloud”) and nïa (“champion”), which is from Proto-Indo-European *h₃neyd- (“to revile”). Doublet of Neil.
/ˈnaɪəl/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Niall?
#1,706 among boys’ names, 2025
Niall rose from #2,379 in 2015 to #1,706 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 28.7 to 56.2 per million.
110 babies in 2024, the peak
Niall peaked in 2024, when 110 boys were given it, #1,578 among boys’ names. The 96 births of 2025 are 87% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 96 | #1,706 | 56.2 |
| 2024 | 110 | #1,578 | 63.8 |
| 2023 | 90 | #1,799 | 52.6 |
| 2022 | 77 | #1,991 | 44.1 |
| 2021 | 84 | #1,849 | 48.0 |
| 2020 | 66 | #2,129 | 38.2 |
| 2019 | 68 | #2,121 | 37.9 |
| 2018 | 96 | #1,668 | 52.9 |
| 2017 | 76 | #1,908 | 41.1 |
| 2016 | 53 | #2,429 | 27.9 |
Every recorded year (68)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 55 | #2,379 | 28.7 |
| 2014 | 64 | #2,148 | 33.3 |
| 2013 | 69 | #2,003 | 36.5 |
| 2012 | 43 | #2,804 | 22.7 |
| 2011 | 34 | #3,285 | 17.9 |
| 2010 | 18 | #5,179 | 9.4 |
| 2009 | 22 | #4,544 | 11.1 |
| 2008 | 33 | #3,400 | 16.2 |
| 2007 | 33 | #3,361 | 15.9 |
| 2006 | 35 | #3,134 | 17.0 |
| 2005 | 28 | #3,500 | 14.0 |
| 2004 | 34 | #2,994 | 17.1 |
| 2003 | 39 | #2,602 | 19.7 |
| 2002 | 32 | #2,921 | 16.5 |
| 2001 | 34 | #2,769 | 17.5 |
| 2000 | 37 | #2,558 | 18.8 |
| 1999 | 33 | #2,653 | 17.2 |
| 1998 | 29 | #2,831 | 15.2 |
| 1997 | 35 | #2,380 | 18.6 |
| 1996 | 34 | #2,360 | 17.9 |
| 1995 | 31 | #2,476 | 16.3 |
| 1994 | 37 | #2,204 | 19.2 |
| 1993 | 35 | #2,237 | 17.8 |
| 1992 | 30 | #2,440 | 15.0 |
| 1991 | 45 | #1,782 | 22.3 |
| 1990 | 26 | #2,592 | 12.7 |
| 1989 | 28 | #2,390 | 14.0 |
| 1988 | 18 | #3,036 | 9.4 |
| 1987 | 15 | #3,290 | 8.0 |
| 1986 | 21 | #2,578 | 11.4 |
| 1985 | 8 | #5,015 | 4.3 |
| 1984 | 10 | #4,118 | 5.5 |
| 1983 | 7 | #5,303 | 3.9 |
| 1982 | 14 | #3,235 | 7.7 |
| 1981 | 8 | #4,824 | 4.5 |
| 1980 | 11 | #3,770 | 6.2 |
| 1979 | 11 | #3,740 | 6.4 |
| 1978 | 8 | #4,437 | 4.9 |
| 1977 | 7 | #4,951 | 4.3 |
| 1976 | 11 | #3,410 | 7.0 |
| 1975 | 12 | #3,182 | 7.7 |
| 1974 | 7 | #4,481 | 4.5 |
| 1973 | 7 | #4,368 | 4.5 |
| 1972 | 8 | #3,858 | 4.9 |
| 1971 | 16 | #2,440 | 9.0 |
| 1970 | 14 | #2,594 | 7.5 |
| 1969 | 11 | #2,803 | 6.2 |
| 1968 | 10 | #2,855 | 5.8 |
| 1967 | 5 | #4,373 | 2.9 |
| 1964 | 14 | #2,280 | 7.0 |
| 1963 | 7 | #3,557 | 3.4 |
| 1962 | 7 | #3,532 | 3.4 |
| 1961 | 8 | #3,285 | 3.8 |
| 1960 | 6 | #3,936 | 2.8 |
| 1959 | 7 | #3,497 | 3.3 |
| 1958 | 6 | #3,809 | 2.8 |
| 1956 | 6 | #3,817 | 2.8 |
| 1955 | 5 | #4,221 | 2.4 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Niall a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Niall has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 68 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Niall: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Niall, and how old are they?
2,030 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 97% of the 2,094 Americans ever recorded as Niall. The median Niall alive today is 14 years old; half are between 6 and 30.
The 2020 Census counted 2,052 people named Niall (18 women and girls, 2,034 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,544 born in the U.S. The Census count is 33% 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.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 50 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 123 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 351 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 510 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 997 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
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).
Where are babies named Niall born?
The states with the most babies named Niall are California, Pennsylvania and Ohio, with 72% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 12 | #1,484 | 0.6× |
| Pennsylvania | 8 | #987 | 0.5× |
| Ohio | 6 | #1,212 | 0.3× |
| New York | 5 | #1,965 | 1.4× |
| Massachusetts | 5 | #866 | 1.6× |
Where Niall is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Niall is most over-represented in New York: since 1955 it was given 1.4 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among boys’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Niall with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 6 names spelled alike, given to 5,036 babies since 1880, Niall is the most given (42% of them). In 2025 it was given to 96 of their 180 babies (53%), again the most given.
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 Niall
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 Niall and names like it
- Compare Niall and NielBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sNiall peaked in 2024.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Niall since 1910.
- Irish namesWiktionary’s origin for Niall: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2024The year the most babies were named Niall.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Niall alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with NMost given first.