Nathalie
A feminine name of French origin derived from Natalia meaning "Christmas Day".
Name Census estimates that about 17,593 living Americans carry the first name Nathalie. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Nathalie today is around 26 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Nathalie births was 2009 (629 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Nathalie. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Nathalie with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
18K
~ 1 in 19,482 Americans
Peak year
2009
629 babies that year
Average age
26
years old
1989 SSA rank
#1,244
Tracked since 1881
Census
Nathalie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 19,886 people with the first name Nathalie, which placed it at #1,607 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#1,607
National first-name rank
People counted
20K
19,886 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
6.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
53.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Nathalie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Nathalie is Hispanic at 53.3%. The next largest groups are White (28.7%) and Black (11.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Nathalie described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Nathalie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino53.3% · 10,608
- White28.7% · 5,706
- Black or African American11.6% · 2,306
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.1% · 821
- Two or more races2.1% · 413
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 32
Gender
Gender distribution for Nathalie
Out of the 20,527 babies given the name Nathalie since 1880, 100.0% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Nathalie as a male name
- Ranked #7,627 in 1989
- 6 male births in 1989
- Peak: 1989 (6 births)
Nathalie as a female name
- Ranked #1,244 in 2024
- 187 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2009 (629 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Nathalie appears almost entirely female. Of the 19,885 people counted with this name, 99.8% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Nathalie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Nathalie from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 5,034 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Nathalie by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Nathalie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Nathalies live
The SSA's state-level files cover 36 states and territories. California, New York, Texas recorded the most babies named Nathalie, while Mississippi, Idaho, District of Columbia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 437 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Nathalie
The name Nathalie has its origins in the Latin language, derived from the name Natalia, which itself stems from the Latin word "natalis," meaning "birthday" or "relating to birth." It is believed to have emerged in the early Christian era, around the 4th or 5th century AD, as a name for girls born on Christmas Day or around the Christmas season.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Nathalie can be found in the writings of St. Jerome, a 4th-century Christian scholar and theologian. He mentioned a woman named Natalia in one of his letters, indicating the use of the name during that time period.
As Christianity spread throughout Europe, the name Nathalie gained popularity, particularly in regions like France, Italy, and Spain. Over time, various spellings emerged, including Natalia, Nathalia, and Nathalie, with the latter becoming the most common form in French-speaking regions.
In the Middle Ages, several notable women bore the name Nathalie. One example is Nathalie of Arles, a 5th-century Christian martyr who was canonized by the Catholic Church. Another is Nathalie de Vitré, a 12th-century French noblewoman and the mother of the famous Breton poet and crusader, Bertrand du Guesclin.
During the Renaissance period, the name Nathalie continued to be used, although less frequently than other popular names of the time. One notable bearer was Nathalie de Lestang, a 16th-century French courtier and lady-in-waiting to Queen Catherine de' Medici.
In the 18th century, the name gained renewed popularity, particularly in France. One famous Nathalie from this era was Nathalie Delaunay, a French painter and textile designer who was a prominent figure in the avant-garde art movement known as Orphism.
Another notable figure was Nathalie Lemel, a 19th-century Russian-born French actress and socialite who was known for her beauty and her influential role in Parisian high society during the Belle Époque.
In the 20th century, several women with the name Nathalie made significant contributions in various fields. Nathalie Sarraute, a French novelist and playwright, was a leading figure in the nouveau roman literary movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Nathalie Delon, a French actress and director, gained fame for her roles in films such as "Le Samouraï" and "The Swimming Pool."
Notable bearers
Famous people named Nathalie
People
Nathalie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Nathalie as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with N
Other first names starting with N with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Nathalie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Nathalie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 17,593 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Nathalie going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 19,482 US residents.
Is Nathalie a common name?
We classify Nathalie as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 20,527 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Nathalie most popular?
The single biggest year for Nathalie was 2009, when 629 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Nathalie is about 26 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Nathalie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 19,886 people with the name Nathalie, or 6.58 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,607 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Nathalie in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Nathalie?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Nathalie appears almost entirely female. Of the 19,885 people counted with this name, 99.8% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Nathalie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Nathalie is Hispanic at 53.3%. The next largest groups are White (28.7%) and Black (11.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Nathalie most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Nathalie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 53.3% (10,608 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Nathalie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Nathalie a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Nathalie in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Nathalie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Nathalie in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Nathalie can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have the name Nathalie?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.