Nils
Masculine · “victory of the people”
Nils is Scandinavia's Nicholas, worn down to one syllable by Danish, Swedish and Norwegian in turn. The full name is Greek and means victory of the people; what is left is four letters and a sound that has been ordinary from Jutland to Lapland for the better part of a thousand years.
How old is the name Nils?
Nils first appears in US birth records in 1888 — 137 years ago. The typical Nils alive today was born around 1969, making them about 56 years old. About 2,200 people named Nils are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Nils most popular?
Nils peaked in 1888, reaching #815 nationally. Today it ranks #4857, 4,042 places below that high. See the whole 1888 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Nikolaos to Nils
The story of Nils
The cult of the fourth-century bishop of Myra reached Scandinavia with Christianity, and the name became one of the commonest in the north; the Danish and Swedish contraction Nils is documented from the Middle Ages. It gave whole families their surnames, Nilsson and Nielsen among the most numerous in Sweden and Denmark. Scandinavian emigrants brought it to Minnesota, the Dakotas and the upper Midwest in enormous numbers in the nineteenth century, where it often became Nelson or Neil in the next generation.
Meaning
victory of the people
Through Nicholas from Greek Nikolaos: nike, victory, joined to laos, the people. Scandinavian speech reduced it to Niklas, then Nils, keeping the first and last consonants and dropping everything between.
How the name formed
- Nikolaos
- Nicolaus
- Niklas
- Nils
Related forms: Niels · Nils · Niels · Nicholas · Niilo
Pronouncing Nils
NILSS
One syllable, the i short as in fill. Danish spells it Niels and says it much the same way; nothing about it is difficult for English speakers.
Nicknames for Nils
Moderate
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
- 1888
- Most boys named
- 196644 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #815reached in 1888
- Change vs 2023
- −16.7%20 in 2025, from 24
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.
Nils in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Niels in Danish — spelling variant
- Nils in Swedish — same name
- Niels in German — spelling variant
- Nicholas in English — related form
- Niilo in Finnish — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: Minnesota.
Nilss among us
people named Nils are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 85,404 born in 2025 was named Nils
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Nils 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
Nils beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Nils in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Four letters and one syllable: it cannot be mispronounced or misspelled.
- It connects to Nicholas, one of the most traveled names in Europe.
- It keeps a Scandinavian family line visible on a document without being hard to use.
- Niles, Nils and Niels are close enough to be confused in American writing.
- A one-syllable name gives nothing to shorten and no change of register.
- English speakers may hear it as a surname, since Nilsson and Nielsen are far better known.
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Nils
Masculine · #4857 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Nilss are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,200 people named Nils are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Nils in 2025?
- Nils ranks #4857 among US boy names in 2025, with 20 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Nils?
- About 1 in every 85,404 US boys born in 2025 was named Nils — 20 in all.
- Will my child share the name Nils with classmates?
- Nils will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Nils
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Carlyle#4857 · Russ#4857 · Hercules#4857 · Marcial#4857 · Lauro#4857 · Marin#4857 · Gil#4857 · Aloysius#4857
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Nils? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Nils and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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