Nathanael
A masculine given name of Hebrew origin meaning "gift of God".
Name Census estimates that about 21,150 living Americans carry the first name Nathanael. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Nathanael today is around 26 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Nathanael births was 2000 (609 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Nathanael. 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 Nathanael with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
21K
~ 1 in 16,206 Americans
Peak year
2000
609 babies that year
Average age
26
years old
2024 SSA rank
#674
Tracked since 1915
Census
Nathanael in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 16,479 people with the first name Nathanael, which placed it at #1,798 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
#1,798
National first-name rank
People counted
16K
16,479 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
5.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
63.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Nathanael
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Nathanael is White at 63.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (17.6%) and Black (9.6%). 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 Nathanael 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 Nathanael at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White63.4% · 10,452
- Hispanic or Latino17.6% · 2,904
- Black or African American9.6% · 1,577
- Two or more races5.5% · 908
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.4% · 567
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 71
Gender
Gender distribution for Nathanael
Out of the 21,791 babies given the name Nathanael since 1880, 99.9% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Nathanael as a male name
- Ranked #674 in 2024
- 404 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2000 (609 births)
Nathanael as a female name
- Ranked #16,878 in 2023
- 5 female births in 2023
- Peak: 1987 (7 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Nathanael appears almost entirely male. Of the 16,476 people counted with this name, 99.7% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Nathanael: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Nathanael from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 5,711 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Nathanael remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Nathanael 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 Nathanael during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Nathanaels live
The SSA's state-level files cover 45 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Nathanael, while New Hampshire, Montana, Delaware recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 418 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Nathanael
The name Nathanael has its origins in the Hebrew language. It is a biblical name derived from the Hebrew words "נתן" (Natan) meaning "given" and "אל" (El) meaning "God", forming the combined meaning of "gift of God".
Nathanael is the name used in some translations of the Bible for one of the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ, who is also referred to as Bartholomew in other translations. He is first mentioned in the Gospel of John, where Jesus recognizes him as "an Israelite in whom there is no deceit".
The earliest recorded use of the name Nathanael dates back to ancient biblical times, appearing in the New Testament of the Bible. Apart from the apostle Nathanael, one of the first notable individuals with this name was Nathanael Durand, a French Protestant theologian and author born in 1590.
In the 17th century, Nathanael Carpenter (1589-1628) was an English writer and philosopher. Nathanael Greene (1742-1786) was a major general in the American Revolutionary War, known for his successful command in the Southern campaigns.
Nathanael West (1903-1940) was an American author and satirist, best known for his novel "The Day of the Locust". Nathanael Herreshoff (1848-1938) was a renowned American naval architect and engineer, known for his innovative yacht designs.
Nathanael Hawthorne (1804-1864) was a famous American novelist and short story writer, author of "The Scarlet Letter" and other notable works. His name was originally spelled Nathaniel, but he added the "a" to make it more distinct.
While the name Nathanael has biblical origins and historical references, it has been used across various cultures and time periods, with different spellings and variations, such as Nathaniel, Nathanial, Nathanael, or Nathanël.
People
Nathanael + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Nathanael 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
Nathanael: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Nathanael?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 21,150 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Nathanael 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 16,206 US residents.
Is Nathanael a common name?
We classify Nathanael as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 21,791 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Nathanael most popular?
The single biggest year for Nathanael was 2000, when 609 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Nathanael 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 Nathanael in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 16,479 people with the name Nathanael, or 5.46 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,798 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 Nathanael 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 Nathanael?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Nathanael appears almost entirely male. Of the 16,476 people counted with this name, 99.7% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Nathanael?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Nathanael is White at 63.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (17.6%) and Black (9.6%). 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 Nathanael most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Nathanael in the 2020 Census, accounting for 63.4% (10,452 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 Nathanael in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Nathanael a male name?
Yes, 99.9% of people registered as Nathanael in the SSA data are male. 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 Nathanael still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Nathanael 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 Nathanael 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 Nathanael as a first name?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.