Nelson
English name meaning "son of the champion", from Old Norse.
Name Census estimates that about 52,062 living Americans carry the first name Nelson. It is a predominantly male name (99.5% of registrations). The average person named Nelson today is around 47 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Nelson births was 1959 (1,083 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Nelson. 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 Nelson with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Nelson is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 431 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
52K
~ 1 in 6,584 Americans
Peak year
1959
1,083 babies that year
Average age
47
years old
2024 SSA rank
#778
Tracked since 1880
Census
Nelson in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 78,251 people with the first name Nelson, which placed it at #676 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
#676
National first-name rank
People counted
78K
78,251 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
25.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
56.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Nelson
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Nelson is Hispanic at 56.5%. The next largest groups are White (26.1%) and Black (8.4%). 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 Nelson 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 Nelson at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino56.5% · 44,247
- White26.1% · 20,451
- Black or African American8.4% · 6,574
- Asian and Pacific Islander6.8% · 5,307
- Two or more races1.2% · 969
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 703
Gender
Gender distribution for Nelson
Out of the 79,829 babies given the name Nelson since 1880, 99.5% 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.
Nelson as a male name
- Ranked #778 in 2024
- 322 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1959 (1,083 births)
Nelson as a female name
- Ranked #14,653 in 2023
- 6 female births in 2023
- Peak: 1927 (13 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Nelson appears almost entirely male. Of the 78,256 people counted with this name, 99.6% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Nelson: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Nelson from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 9,222 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Nelson 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 Nelson during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Nelsons live
The SSA's state-level files cover 47 states and territories. New York, California, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Nelson, while South Dakota, Alaska, Nebraska recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,535 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Nelson
The given name Nelson has its origins in the English language and dates back to the Middle Ages. It is derived from the Old English words "nes" and "leah," which together mean "promontory meadow" or "meadow by the headland." The name was initially a surname that referred to someone who lived near a promontory meadow or a headland.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Nelson can be found in the Domesday Book, a survey of land ownership in England commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. The book mentions a landowner named "Nelsone" in Yorkshire.
As a first name, Nelson gained popularity in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, likely influenced by the fame of Horatio Nelson (1758-1805), the renowned British naval officer who played a crucial role in the Napoleonic Wars. His victories at the Battle of the Nile in 1798 and the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 made him a national hero in Britain.
Other notable historical figures with the first name Nelson include:
1. Nelson Mandela (1918-2013), the South African anti-apartheid revolutionary and former President of South Africa, who played a pivotal role in ending racial segregation and discrimination.
2. Nelson Rockefeller (1908-1979), an American businessman, philanthropist, and politician who served as the 41st Vice President of the United States under President Gerald Ford.
3. Nelson Eddy (1901-1967), an American actor and singer who enjoyed a successful career in Hollywood musicals and opera during the 1930s and 1940s.
4. Nelson Piquet (born 1952), a Brazilian former Formula One racing driver who won three World Drivers' Championship titles in 1981, 1983, and 1987.
5. Nelson Algren (1909-1981), an American writer known for his gritty and realistic depictions of life in urban areas, particularly in his novel "The Man with the Golden Arm."
While the name Nelson has its roots in English, it has also been adopted and used in various cultures around the world, reflecting the global reach and influence of the English language.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Nelson
People
Nelson + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Nelson 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
Nelson: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Nelson?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 52,062 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Nelson 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 6,584 US residents.
Is Nelson a common name?
We classify Nelson as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 79,829 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Nelson most popular?
The single biggest year for Nelson was 1959, when 1,083 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Nelson is about 47 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Nelson in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 78,251 people with the name Nelson, or 25.91 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #676 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 Nelson 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 Nelson?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Nelson appears almost entirely male. Of the 78,256 people counted with this name, 99.6% 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 Nelson?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Nelson is Hispanic at 56.5%. The next largest groups are White (26.1%) and Black (8.4%). 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 Nelson most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Nelson in the 2020 Census, accounting for 56.5% (44,247 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 Nelson in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Nelson a male name?
Yes, 99.5% of people registered as Nelson 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 Nelson still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Nelson 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 Nelson 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 share the name Nelson?
Find out how many Americans are named Nelson on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.