Niles
From a given name originating as a variation of Neil, meaning champion.
Name Census estimates that about 3,281 living Americans carry the first name Niles. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Niles today is around 38 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Niles births was 1998 (80 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Niles. 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 Niles with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
3.3K
~ 1 in 104,466 Americans
Peak year
1998
80 babies that year
Average age
38
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,189
Tracked since 1897
Census
Niles in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,957 people with the first name Niles, which placed it at #5,704 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
#5,704
National first-name rank
People counted
3.0K
2,957 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
64.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Niles
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Niles is White at 64.0%. The next largest groups are Black (21.2%) and Two or More Races (6.0%). 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 Niles 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 Niles at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White64.0% · 1,893
- Black or African American21.2% · 628
- Two or more races6.0% · 178
- Hispanic or Latino4.2% · 125
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.0% · 88
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.5% · 45
Popularity
Niles: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Niles from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 558 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1990s peak, Niles remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Niles 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 Niles during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Niles' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 18 states and territories. California, New York, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Niles, while Washington, Virginia, Minnesota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 39 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Niles
The name Niles has its origins in the ancient Greek language. It is derived from the Greek word "neilos," which means "river" or "valley." This is a reference to the Nile River, one of the most significant rivers in the ancient world and a vital lifeline for the civilizations that flourished along its banks.
Niles was a personal name used in ancient Greece, though its usage was relatively rare. The earliest recorded instance of the name dates back to the 5th century BCE, when it was mentioned in a play by the famous Athenian dramatist Sophocles.
In the 1st century CE, the name Niles appeared in the writings of the Roman historian Pliny the Elder, who referred to a figure with this name in his work "Naturalis Historia." This suggests that the name had spread from Greece to Rome during the height of the Roman Empire.
One of the most notable historical figures named Niles was Niles the Patrician, a high-ranking Byzantine official who lived in the 5th century CE. He served as the praetorian prefect of the East under the Byzantine Emperor Zeno and played a significant role in the political affairs of the Eastern Roman Empire.
Another famous bearer of the name was Niles of Ancyra, a 5th-century Christian bishop and theologian from the city of Ancyra (modern-day Ankara, Turkey). He was a prominent figure in the early Christian Church and participated in several important theological councils.
In the 12th century, a Benedictine monk named Niles Doxapatres lived in Sicily. He is best known for his work "On the Five Patriarchal Sees," a treatise discussing the authority and jurisdiction of the five major Christian patriarchates of his time.
During the Renaissance period, Niles Henricksson (1554-1622) was a Swedish clergyman and author who played a significant role in the early Lutheran Church in Sweden. He served as the Bishop of Linköping and published several theological works.
In more recent history, Niles Trammell (1892-1968) was an American businessman and executive who served as the president of the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) from 1940 to 1949. He played a crucial role in the development of television broadcasting in the United States.
People
Niles + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Niles 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
Niles: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Niles?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,281 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Niles 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 104,466 US residents.
Is Niles a common name?
We classify Niles as "Rare". It ranks above 95.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,400 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Niles most popular?
The single biggest year for Niles was 1998, when 80 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Niles is about 38 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Niles in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,957 people with the name Niles, or 0.98 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,704 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 Niles 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 Niles?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Niles leans strongly male. 2,926 people counted with this name were male (99.0%), compared with 30 female bearers (1.0%). 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 Niles?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Niles is White at 64.0%. The next largest groups are Black (21.2%) and Two or More Races (6.0%). 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 Niles most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Niles in the 2020 Census, accounting for 64.0% (1,893 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 Niles in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Niles a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Niles 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 Niles still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Niles 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 Niles 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 Niles?
You can see how many Americans are named Niles on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.