Nathalie
Feminine · “birthday”
Nathalie is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 20,667 girls against 6 boys since 1880.
Nathalie is the French spelling of a name that began as a word for a birthday — specifically the birth of Christ, which is why early Christians gave it to children born at Christmas. The silent h is the whole story of its route into English: it arrived by way of France, and kept the French look. Said aloud it is three soft syllables that end on a rising note.
How old is the name Nathalie?
Nathalie first appears in US birth records in 1881 — 144 years ago. The typical Nathalie alive today was born around 1999, making them about 26 years old. About 18,000 people named Nathalie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Nathalie most popular?
Nathalie peaked in 1998, reaching #445 nationally. Today it ranks #1478, 1,033 places below that high. See the whole 1998 chart.
Nathalie appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From Natalis to Nathalie
The story of Nathalie
The root is the Latin adjective natalis, 'relating to birth', which in Christian Latin attached itself to Christmas — the birthday of Christ. Children born on that day were given Natalis and Natalia, and Natalia of Nicomedia, martyred in the fourth century, carried the name into the calendar of saints. It became a mainstay in the Eastern churches, where Russian produced Nataliya and its everyday form Natasha, and it settled just as firmly in the West. Nathalie is the standard French shape of it, with the h that French added and English never needed; a well-known French chanson of the 1960s titled simply 'Nathalie' helped fix the spelling in ears far outside France.
Meaning
birthday — in origin, Christmas Day
From Latin natalis, 'of birth'; the phrase dies natalis Domini meant the Lord's birthday, and the name was given to children born at Christmas.
How the name formed
- Natalis
- Natalia
- Nathalie
Related forms: Natalie · Natalia · Natalia · Nataliya · Natália · Natasha
Pronouncing Nathalie
NAT-uh-lee
In American English it is said exactly like Natalie — the h is silent and plays no part. In French the stress moves to the end: na-ta-LEE.
Nicknames for Nathalie
High
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1881
- Most girls named
- 2011557 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #445reached in 1998
- Change vs 2022
- −41.1%145 in 2025, from 246
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Nathalie in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Natalie in English — spelling variant
- Natalia in Spanish — same name
- Natalia in Italian — same name
- Nataliya in Russian — transliteration
- Natália in Portuguese — spelling variant
- Natasha in Russian — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Nathalies among us
people named Nathalie are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 11,085 born in 2025 was named Nathalie
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Benita test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Nathalie's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Benita climbed just as high around 1961, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Benita's path sketches the road Nathalie is walking now.
Nathalie sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Nathalie is headed
Nathalie is easing off slowly — about 16% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Nathalie beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Nathalie in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The pronunciation is already known to everyone, since it matches the far more common Natalie spelling.
- Works in French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and English with only small adjustments — useful in a bilingual family.
- Comes with short forms that have been in use for generations: Nat, Natty, Talia.
- A documented history running back to Latin and the fourth-century calendar of saints, unbroken ever since.
- Expect to spell it out often. Most people default to Natalie, and the silent h will need correcting on forms, emails and coffee cups for life.
- It sounds identical to Natalie in American English, so the distinctive spelling is invisible in conversation and only shows up in writing.
- The name has been easing back from its high point, which means fewer classroom duplicates but also that it reads as belonging to a particular stretch of recent decades — a phase most names pass through and come out of.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Nathalie
Feminine · #1478 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Nathalies are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 18,000 people named Nathalie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Nathalie in 2025?
- Nathalie ranks #1478 among US girl names in 2025, with 145 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Nathalie?
- About 1 in every 11,085 US girls born in 2025 was named Nathalie — 145 in all.
- Will my child share the name Nathalie with classmates?
- Nathalie will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Nathalie
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Hosanna#1478 · Atlas#1478 · Cattaleya#1478 · Verity#1478 · Wyatt#1478 · Lakyn#1484 · Dove#1484 · Miah#1484
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Nathalie? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Nathalie and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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