Nils
The boy's name Nils has been in the national records since 1888, with 3,083 births to its name. In 2025 it ranked 4,857th. About 2,100 Nilses are alive in the United States today, and half of them are over 41.
Popularity, 1880–2025
boys named Nils
By the numbers
- Total US births
- 3,083
- Estimated living today
- 2,100
- Median age today
- 41
- Peak year
- 1970
- Best rank
- 1,192nd
- Rank in 2025
- 4,857th
- First recorded
- 1888
How old the living Nilses are
born that year still alive today
Of the 3,083 babies given the name since 1888, about 2,100 are alive — 68 in every hundred. The dotted line is the median: half were born before 1984 and half after.
An estimate, not a count. SSA births aged forward through SSA cohort life tables, which know nothing about who left the country or arrived in it — so for a name that mostly came to America rather than being born in it, this is a floor rather than a figure. Where you fall among living Americans.
Notable Nilss
- Nils Gustaf Dalén (1869–1937)Swedish Nobel Laureate and industrialist
- Nils Liedholm (1922–2007)Swedish footballer and manager
- Nils Petersen (born 1988)German association football player
- Nils-Aslak Valkeapää (1943–2001)Northern Sámi writer, artist and musician
- Nils Edén (1871–1945)Swedish 20th century prime minister
- Nils van der Poel (born 1996)Swedish speed skater
- Nils Schumann (born 1978)German middle-distance runner
- Nils Politt (born 1994)German cyclist
People named Nils with articles in the most Wikipedia languages. Data from Wikidata (CC0).
Where Nils is most common
Relative to how many babies each state records, Nils is most concentrated in New York (5.8×), California (3.8×), Minnesota (2.2×), Massachusetts (1.8×).
Total births recorded in each state since 1910. Browse names by state.
Names of 1970
The most popular boys’ names the year Nils peaked:
Nils elsewhere
| Country | Spelling | Births | Best rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Norway boys | Nils | 12,343 | 21st |
| Sweden boys | Nils | 9,862 | 7th |
| France boys | Nils | 7,625 | 209th |
| Switzerland boys | Nils | 3,737 | 16th |
| Belgium boys | Nils | 1,209 | 188th |
| England and Wales boys | Nils | 150 | 1,859th |
| Poland boys | Nils | 10 birth registrations | 424th |
| Ireland boys | Nils | 3 | 337th |
| Scotland boys | Nils | 3 | 669th |
Counts come from each country's own records and are not comparable with the US figures above, which cover different years and a different definition of a recorded name. Where a country writes the name several ways, the spellings are added together and the most common is shown. A row marked name registrations is counting something else: Portugal ranks each of a child's two given names separately, so a girl registered Maria Leonor is in both the Maria row and the Leonor row, and that figure is not a number of children.
Nils: births by region
| Region | Country | Spelling | Births | Share of the region | Best rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| German boys | Switzerland | Nils | 3,242 | 0.261% | 11th |
| French boys | Switzerland | Nils | 481 | 0.111% | 59th |
| Italian boys | Switzerland | Nils | 11 | 0.017% | 117th |
| Romansh boys | Switzerland | Nils | 3 | 0.081% | 22nd |
Parts of a country counted above, not extra births. The share is what makes the regions comparable: they differ in size by a factor of three hundred.
By canton, Nils is most concentrated in Obwalden, where 0.44% of children were given it – 36 of them.
Nils: rank by region
In 2025, Nils was given 5 times or more in 1 region of Belgium.
| Region | Spelling | Place | Children |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wallonia | Nils | 317 | 8 |
In 2024, with the country taken in 11 areas rather than 3, Nils appears in the lists for Province of Liège (187th).
Each of these is the top of a list the statistics office cut off somewhere – Belgium below 5 children – and published nothing after. So a region missing here is one where the name fell outside what was published, not one where it went unused. Places are shared where names tie, and the further down a list a place is, the more names can share it.
Nils by city
| City | Years | Births | Best rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Berlin boys | 2017–2023 | 245 | 84th |
One city over a few years, so these are much smaller numbers than the national ones above and not comparable with them.
Nils among the living
How many people each country's register counts under the name, rather than how many were given it in any one year. Each register was read on one date, and they are not the same date.
| Country | Spelling | First forename | Any forename |
|---|---|---|---|
| Finland boys | Nils | 1,738 | 3,096 |
| the Netherlands boys | Nils | 2,418 | 2,908 |
A count of people on a register – Finland on 4 August 2026, the Netherlands on 1 January 2018 – and not of births, so it cannot be compared with the figures above. Names with very few bearers are withheld, and a dash in the first-forename column means the register would not say rather than that nobody goes by it.
Where Nils lives in Spain
Not a count of births but of people: 234 men called Nils were living in Spain on 1 January 2025, of every age, born in any year. Where they live is not spread evenly.
Men: the provinces where it is densest
| Province | Spelling | People | Per thousand | Place there |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tarragona | Nils | 14 | 0.032 | 1,676 |
| Balears, Illes | Nils | 20 | 0.032 | 1,738 |
| Barcelona | Nils | 88 | 0.030 | 1,691 |
| Girona | Nils | 12 | 0.029 | 1,868 |
| Santa Cruz de Tenerife | Nils | 15 | 0.028 | 2,547 |
| Palmas, Las | Nils | 9 | 0.015 | 4,144 |
Listed in 8 of Spain's 52 provinces. In the other 44 it is either held by fewer than 5 people – the point below which the source withholds a name – or it fell past the 5,000 names the source will print for one province. Neither means nobody there is called it. The rate is the source's own, not a share worked out here.
Related names
Nils against another name
Two names on one chart, with the year one overtook the other.
Try it on yourself
Source: US Social Security Administration, national and state baby-name files, 1880–2025. Counts include only births registered with the SSA, and names with fewer than five births in a year are not published. The living estimate applies SSA cohort life tables to those births; it counts people born in the United States, so it misses anyone who arrived later and anyone who has left.