Niels
A masculine Danish name derived from a Norman French version of Nicholas.
Name Census estimates that about 1,051 living Americans carry the first name Niels. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Niels today is around 42 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Niels births was 1957 (31 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Niels. 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 Niels with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.1K
~ 1 in 326,122 Americans
Peak year
1957
31 babies that year
Average age
42
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,694
Tracked since 1893
Census
Niels in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,401 people with the first name Niels, which placed it at #9,779 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
#9,779
National first-name rank
People counted
1.4K
1,401 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
87.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Niels
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Niels is White at 87.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (5.6%) and Two or More Races (3.8%). 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 Niels 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 Niels at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White87.0% · 1,219
- Hispanic or Latino5.6% · 78
- Two or more races3.8% · 53
- Black or African American1.6% · 23
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.5% · 21
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 7
Popularity
Niels: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Niels from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 180 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1950s peak, Niels remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Niels 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 Niels during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Niels' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. California, New York, Utah recorded the most babies named Niels, while Utah, New York, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 28 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Niels
The name Niels is a Danish and Norwegian form of the name Nicholas, which has its origins in the Greek name Nikolaos. Nikolaos is derived from the words "niko" meaning "victory" and "laos" meaning "people." The name Niels is thought to have emerged around the 13th century in Scandinavia.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Niels can be found in the 14th century Danish chronicle Rydårbogen, which mentions a man named Niels Bugge. Additionally, the name appears in various medieval Nordic texts and records.
In terms of historical figures bearing the name Niels, one notable example is Niels Stensen (1638-1686), a Danish scientist and geologist who made significant contributions to the study of anatomy and paleontology. Another prominent individual was Niels Bohr (1885-1962), a Danish physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922 for his work on atomic structure and quantum theory.
Niels Henrik Abel (1802-1829) was a Norwegian mathematician who made groundbreaking contributions to the fields of algebra and calculus, despite his tragically short life. His work laid the foundations for modern algebraic geometry.
In the world of exploration, Niels Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld (1832-1901) was a Finnish-Swedish explorer and scientist who led the first successful expedition to navigate the Northeast Passage, a sea route along the northern coast of Eurasia.
Another noteworthy figure was Niels Gade (1817-1890), a Danish composer and violinist who played a significant role in the development of Romantic-era music in Scandinavia, particularly with his symphonic works.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Niels
People
Niels + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Niels 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
Niels: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Niels?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,051 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Niels 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 326,122 US residents.
Is Niels a common name?
We classify Niels as "Rare". It ranks above 90.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,446 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Niels most popular?
The single biggest year for Niels was 1957, when 31 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Niels is about 42 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Niels in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,401 people with the name Niels, or 0.46 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #9,779 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 Niels 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 Niels?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Niels appears almost entirely male. Of the 1,397 people counted with this name, 99.4% 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 Niels?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Niels is White at 87.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (5.6%) and Two or More Races (3.8%). 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 Niels most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Niels in the 2020 Census, accounting for 87.0% (1,219 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 Niels in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Niels a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Niels 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 Niels still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Niels 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 Niels 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 are called Niels?
You can see how many Americans are named Niels on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.