How popular is the baby name Nathaniel in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Use the popularity graph and data table below to find out! Plus, see all the blog posts that mention the name Nathaniel.

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Popularity of the baby name Nathaniel


Posts that mention the name Nathaniel

Popular baby names in the Philippines, 2023

Flag of the Philippines
Flag of the Philippines

Two years ago, the archipelagic country of the Philippines welcomed 1,448,522 babies — 695,190 (48%) girls and 753,332 (52%) boys.

What were the most popular names among these babies? Althea and Nathaniel.

Here are the country’s top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2023:

Girl names

  1. Althea, 1,850 baby girls
  2. Angel, 1,363
  3. Zoey, 1,126
  4. Chloe, 1,042
  5. Nathalie, 1,040
  6. Sofia, 989 [tie]
  7. Zia, 989 [tie]
  8. Princess, 975
  9. Samantha, 971
  10. Ayesha, 939

Boy names

  1. Nathaniel, 1,948 baby boys
  2. Gabriel, 1,669
  3. Jacob, 1,649
  4. Ezekiel, 1,592
  5. Ethan, 1,425
  6. Nathan, 1,421
  7. Matthew, 1,383
  8. Liam, 1,351
  9. Jayden, 1,341
  10. Noah, 1,235

In the girls’ top 10, Zoey and Ayesha replaced Athena and Sophia.

In the boys’ top 10, Jayden replaced James.

The name Argus — which derives from the Ancient Greek word argos, meaning “shining, bright” — was one of the fastest-rising names of the year, skyrocketing in usage from 7 baby boys in 2022 to 247 baby boys in 2023.

What made it trendy all of a sudden?

Child entertainer Argus Aspiras on the TV series "It's Showtime" (2009-)
Argus Aspiras on “It’s Showtime“

Child star Argus Aspiras, who was regularly featured on a children’s segment of the popular Philippine TV variety show It’s Showtime during 2023.

The compound name Yllana Marie also saw a steep rise in usage — from a one baby girl in 2022 to 30 baby girls in 2023. This increase can be attributed to Filipino beauty queen Yllana Marie Aduana, who placed first runner-up at the Miss Earth pageant in 2023.

(Althea and Nathaniel were also the top names in the country one year earlier, in 2022.)

Sources: The Philippines’ Most Common Baby Names of 2023 – Philippine Statistics Authority (PDF), Registered Live Births in the Philippines, 2023 – Philippine Statistics Authority, Argus – Behind the Name, It’s Showtime (Philippine TV program) – Wikipedia

Images: Adapted from Flag of the Philippines (public domain); screenshot of Argus Aspiras on It’s Showtime (episode from Aug. 2023)

Top names for baby boys, length by length, in 2024

Lengths of baby boy names in 2024 (U.S.)

The most common length for baby boy names last year was 6 letters (used 29.4% of the time), followed by 5 letters (26.5%) and 4 letters (17.4%).

What were the most popular boy names of 2024 within each length group?

Top boy names with 2 letters:

  1. Bo
  2. Ty
  3. Om
  4. Aj
  5. Cy

Top boy names with 3 letters:

  1. Leo
  2. Ian
  3. Kai
  4. Eli
  5. Ace

Top boy names with 4 letters:

  1. Liam
  2. Noah
  3. Levi
  4. Ezra
  5. Jack

Top boy names with 5 letters:

  1. James
  2. Henry
  3. Mateo
  4. Lucas
  5. Ethan

Top boy names with 6 letters:

  1. Oliver
  2. Elijah
  3. Daniel
  4. Samuel
  5. Hudson

Top boy names with 7 letters:

  1. William
  2. Michael
  3. Matthew
  4. Jackson
  5. Gabriel

Top boy names with 8 letters:

  1. Theodore
  2. Benjamin
  3. Santiago
  4. Maverick
  5. Jonathan

Top boy names with 9 letters:

  1. Sebastian
  2. Alexander
  3. Christian
  4. Nathaniel
  5. Alejandro

Top boy names with 10 letters:

  1. Alessandro
  2. Maximilian
  3. Montgomery
  4. Kristopher
  5. Cristopher

Top boy names with 11 letters:

  1. Christopher
  2. Maximiliano
  3. Muhammadali
  4. Constantine
  5. Abdulrahman

Top boy names with 12 letters:

  1. Michelangelo
  2. Konstantinos
  3. Muhammadamin
  4. Maximilliano
  5. Massimiliano (tied with #6)

Top boy names with 13 letters:

  1. Muhammadyusuf
  2. Michaelangelo
  3. Kamsiyochukwu
  4. Muhammadsodiq
  5. Muhammadyasin (part of a 5-way tie)

(There weren’t enough 14-letter or 15-letter names to create a top-5 list for either group.)

Source: SSA

Top names for baby boys, letter by letter, in 2024

First letters of baby boy names in 2024 (U.S.)

The most common first letter for baby boy names last year was J (used 10.7% of the time), followed by A (10.5%) and L (7.5%).

The least common first letter was Q (used 0.1% of the time), followed by U (0.2%) and X (0.4%).

So, what were the most popular boy names of 2024 within each letter group?

Top boy names starting with A:

  1. Asher
  2. Alexander
  3. Anthony
  4. Aiden
  5. Angel

Top boy names starting with B:

  1. Benjamin
  2. Bennett
  3. Brooks
  4. Beau
  5. Bryson

Top boy names starting with C:

  1. Carter
  2. Caleb
  3. Cooper
  4. Charles
  5. Christopher

Top boy names starting with D:

  1. Daniel
  2. Dylan
  3. David
  4. Dominic
  5. Damian

Top boy names starting with E:

  1. Elijah
  2. Ezra
  3. Ethan
  4. Elias
  5. Ezekiel

Top boy names starting with F:

  1. Felix
  2. Finn
  3. Finley
  4. Francisco
  5. Fernando

Top boy names starting with G:

  1. Gabriel
  2. Grayson
  3. Gael
  4. Giovanni
  5. George

Top boy names starting with H:

  1. Henry
  2. Hudson
  3. Harrison
  4. Hunter
  5. Hayden

Top boy names starting with I:

  1. Isaac
  2. Isaiah
  3. Ian
  4. Ivan
  5. Ismael

Top boy names starting with J:

  1. James
  2. Jack
  3. John
  4. Julian
  5. Joseph

Top boy names starting with K:

  1. Kai
  2. Kayden
  3. Kingston
  4. Kevin
  5. Kaiden

Top boy names starting with L:

  1. Liam
  2. Lucas
  3. Levi
  4. Luca
  5. Leo

Top boy names starting with M:

  1. Mateo
  2. Michael
  3. Matthew
  4. Maverick
  5. Miles

(Mason, which ranked third in 2023, dropped to sixth last year.)

Top boy names starting with N:

  1. Noah
  2. Nathan
  3. Nolan
  4. Nicholas
  5. Nathaniel

Top boy names starting with O:

  1. Oliver
  2. Owen
  3. Oscar
  4. Omar
  5. Otto

Top boy names starting with P:

  1. Parker
  2. Peter
  3. Patrick
  4. Paul
  5. Phoenix

Top boy names starting with Q:

  1. Quinn
  2. Quincy
  3. Quentin
  4. Quinton
  5. Quintin

Top boy names starting with R:

  1. Roman
  2. Rowan
  3. Ryan
  4. Robert
  5. River

Top boy names starting with S:

  1. Sebastian
  2. Samuel
  3. Santiago
  4. Silas
  5. Sawyer

Top boy names starting with T:

  1. Theodore
  2. Thomas
  3. Thiago
  4. Theo
  5. Tyler

Top boy names starting with U:

  1. Uriel
  2. Uriah
  3. Ulises
  4. Umar
  5. Ulysses

Top boy names starting with V:

  1. Vincent
  2. Victor
  3. Valentino
  4. Vicente
  5. Vincenzo

Top boy names starting with W:

  1. William
  2. Wyatt
  3. Wesley
  4. Waylon
  5. Weston

Top boy names starting with X:

  1. Xavier
  2. Xander
  3. Xzavier
  4. Xavi
  5. Xyleek

(Xyleek debuted impressively in the data last year.)

Top boy names starting with Y:

  1. Yusuf
  2. Yosef
  3. Yahya
  4. Yehuda
  5. Yahir

Top boy names starting with Z:

  1. Zion
  2. Zachary
  3. Zayden
  4. Zayn
  5. Zyaire

Source: SSA

Popular baby names in the Philippines, 2022

Flag of the Philippines
Flag of the Philippines

In 2022, the Philippines welcomed 1,455,393 babies.

What were the most popular names among these babies? Althea and Nathaniel, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority.

Here are the country’s top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2022:

Girl names

  1. Althea, 1,935 baby girls
  2. Angel, 1,388
  3. Samantha, 1,314
  4. Princess, 1,110
  5. Nathalie, 1,094
  6. Chloe, 1,056
  7. Sofia, 1,046
  8. Zia, 984
  9. Athena, 983
  10. Sophia, 973

Boy names

  1. Nathaniel, 1,956 baby boys
  2. Jacob, 1,781
  3. Ezekiel, 1,662
  4. Gabriel, 1,583
  5. Nathan, 1,557
  6. Ethan, 1,359
  7. Noah, 1,322
  8. Liam, 1,198
  9. James, 1,151
  10. Matthew, 1,138

In the girls’ top 10, Zia and Athena replaced Andrea and Angela.

In the boys’ top 10, Noah and Liam replaced Angelo and Zion.

And which baby names saw the biggest jumps in usage?

  • Noah, which rose from 931 to 1,322 baby boys [2021 to 2022]
  • Avianna Louise, which rose from 11 to 295 baby girls [2021 to 2022]

Avianna Louise’s extreme increase must be attributable to something, though I’m not sure what.

In lieu of that, here’s some fun data from a 2017 infographic (PDF) showing how beauty queens have influenced girl names in the Philippines over the years.

In 1974 and 1994 — the first two times that the Philippines hosted the Miss Universe pageant — babies were named after both the delegate from the Philippines and the delegate who won the pageant:

NameDelegateUsage Increase (baby girls)
GuadalupeGuadalupe Sanchez
Miss Philippines 1974		46 to 87
[1973 to 1974]
AmparoAmparo Muñoz (of Spain)
Miss Universe 1974		127 to 689
[1973 to 1974]
CharleneCharlene Gonzales
Miss Philippines 1994		1,345 to 4,178
[1993 to 1994]
SushmitaSushmita Sen (of India)
Miss Universe 1994		3 to 535
[1993 to 1994]

And in 1969, 1973, and 2015, the delegate from the Philippines was the winner of the pageant:

NameDelegateUsage increase (baby girls)
GloriaGloria Diaz
Miss Universe 1969		3,100 to 3,413
[1968 to 1969]
Margarita or Margie
(not specified)		Margarita “Margie” Moran
Miss Universe 1973		1,706 to 2,351
[1972 to 1973]
PiaPia Wurtzbach
Miss Universe 2015		621 to 925
[2015 to 2016]

A fourth Filipina, Catriona Gray, won Miss Universe (and likewise influenced baby names) in 2018.

Sources: Most Common Baby Names of 2022 – Philippine Statistics Authority (PDF), Registered Live Births in the Philippines, 2022 – Philippine Statistics Authority

Image: Adapted from Flag of the Philippines (public domain)