Name Trends

See the popularity of first names over time in the USA

How popular is “Nelson” in the USA?

Number of people named “Nelson” by birth year

This chart shows how many people named “Nelson” were born each year.

Due to changes to population growth and data collection rates over time, this isn't a good chart for understanding popularity.

Popularity of “Nelson” by birth year

This chart shows how the popularity of “Nelson” has changed over time.

Popularity is the number of people named “Nelson” born in that year divided by the total number of births for that year.

Bias in sex for “Nelson” by birth year

This chart shows how “Nelson” has been used as gendered name over time. The scale ranges from 1 (only females) to -1 (only males).

Sex is a required field in SSA's Social Security Card applications (only 2 options). Most applications are filed around a person's time of birth.

The raw data

This table shows the data used in the above charts.

Year Count Proportion Females Males Bias toward female
1880 99 0.000491354 99 -100%
1881 90 0.000467076 90 -100%
1882 104 0.000469456 104 -100%
1883 79 0.000364146 79 -100%
1884 89 0.000365562 89 -100%
1885 83 0.000344607 83 -100%
1886 78 0.000305504 78 -100%
1887 62 0.000250614 62 -100%
1888 85 0.000283831 85 -100%
1889 80 0.000276868 80 -100%
1890 71 0.000235567 71 -100%
1891 86 0.000299993 86 -100%
1892 98 0.000293085 98 -100%
1893 72 0.000221387 72 -100%
1894 76 0.000224394 76 -100%
1895 108 0.000307675 108 -100%
1896 86 0.00024057 86 -100%
1897 104 0.000299749 104 -100%
1898 112 0.000293613 112 -100%
1899 107 0.000315416 107 -100%
1900 135 0.000299828 135 -100%
1901 97 0.000280499 97 -100%
1902 78 0.00020169 78 -100%
1903 93 0.000243966 93 -100%
1904 81 0.000200751 81 -100%
1905 126 0.000297224 126 -100%
1906 100 0.000233399 100 -100%
1907 129 0.000277187 129 -100%
1908 112 0.000229203 112 -100%
1909 113 0.000221038 113 -100%
1910 142 0.000240388 142 -100%
1911 180 0.000279383 180 -100%
1912 349 0.000353217 349 -100%
1913 362 0.000318351 5 357 -97%
1914 527 0.000372085 527 -100%
1915 611 0.000333438 5 606 -98%
1916 619 0.000319993 619 -100%
1917 610 0.000303974 5 605 -98%
1918 670 0.000308598 6 664 -98%
1919 682 0.000323185 682 -100%
1920 745 0.000329261 5 740 -99%
1921 712 0.00030499 8 704 -98%
1922 666 0.000290937 7 659 -98%
1923 704 0.000305757 704 -100%
1924 762 0.000319952 9 753 -98%
1925 738 0.00031629 738 -100%
1926 690 0.000300535 5 685 -99%
1927 686 0.000295771 13 673 -96%
1928 681 0.000301202 681 -100%
1929 596 0.000271878 6 590 -98%
1930 637 0.000286513 7 630 -98%
1931 613 0.000291296 6 607 -98%
1932 635 0.000300764 6 629 -98%
1933 578 0.00028908 6 572 -98%
1934 576 0.000277348 7 569 -98%
1935 584 0.000279439 6 578 -98%
1936 644 0.000309976 13 631 -96%
1937 661 0.000310231 661 -100%
1938 795 0.00035931 795 -100%
1939 801 0.000363522 801 -100%
1940 807 0.00035046 807 -100%
1941 796 0.000326708 5 791 -99%
1942 878 0.000321398 8 870 -98%
1943 800 0.000283431 6 794 -99%
1944 722 0.000268394 7 715 -98%
1945 695 0.000261976 695 -100%
1946 741 0.000231903 741 -100%
1947 814 0.000225965 814 -100%
1948 814 0.00023577 814 -100%
1949 787 0.000225839 5 782 -99%
1950 804 0.000229494 804 -100%
1951 803 0.000217985 803 -100%
1952 829 0.000218272 829 -100%
1953 1012 0.000262609 1012 -100%
1954 952 0.000239153 5 947 -99%
1955 914 0.000227642 914 -100%
1956 920 0.000223136 5 915 -99%
1957 949 0.000225837 7 942 -99%
1958 956 0.000231258 6 950 -99%
1959 1083 0.000260462 1083 -100%
1960 1021 0.000245798 5 1016 -99%
1961 950 0.000229341 950 -100%
1962 939 0.000232692 7 932 -99%
1963 981 0.00024784 981 -100%
1964 826 0.00021247 826 -100%
1965 820 0.000226179 5 815 -99%
1966 732 0.000210608 8 724 -98%
1967 796 0.00023447 7 789 -98%
1968 772 0.00022851 8 764 -98%
1969 769 0.000221274 5 764 -99%
1970 768 0.000212948 12 756 -97%
1971 782 0.000227832 8 774 -98%
1972 632 0.000201082 12 620 -96%
1973 587 0.000194571 7 580 -98%
1974 686 0.000225658 11 675 -97%
1975 695 0.000230179 5 690 -99%
1976 738 0.000243219 7 731 -98%
1977 681 0.000214387 11 670 -97%
1978 685 0.000215825 5 680 -99%
1979 676 0.000203186 6 670 -98%
1980 690 0.000200319 6 684 -98%
1981 646 0.000186739 6 640 -98%
1982 664 0.000189284 6 658 -98%
1983 630 0.000181905 630 -100%
1984 660 0.000189179 9 651 -97%
1985 706 0.000197808 706 -100%
1986 723 0.000203257 9 714 -98%
1987 716 0.000198579 5 711 -99%
1988 767 0.000207575 9 758 -98%
1989 864 0.00022474 8 856 -98%
1990 936 0.000236813 5 931 -99%
1991 810 0.000207945 810 -100%
1992 809 0.000210607 8 801 -98%
1993 767 0.000203433 6 761 -98%
1994 728 0.000195822 8 720 -98%
1995 687 0.000187594 6 681 -98%
1996 621 0.000170268 621 -100%
1997 619 0.000170723 619 -100%
1998 614 0.000166929 614 -100%
1999 610 0.000165139 5 605 -98%
2000 602 0.000159263 602 -100%
2001 615 0.00016429 615 -100%
2002 619 0.000165584 619 -100%
2003 612 0.000160954 612 -100%
2004 578 0.000151272 6 572 -98%
2005 594 0.000154493 594 -100%
2006 605 0.000152925 605 -100%
2007 584 0.000146085 584 -100%
2008 551 0.00014018 551 -100%
2009 519 0.000135858 519 -100%
2010 447 0.00012095 447 -100%
2011 456 0.000124665 456 -100%
2012 465 0.000127141 465 -100%
2013 442 0.00012124 442 -100%
2014 409 0.00011035 409 -100%
2015 426 0.000115107 426 -100%
2016 431 0.00011748 431 -100%
2017 411 0.000114927 411 -100%
2018 374 0.000106374 374 -100%
2019 411 0.000118412 5 406 -98%
2020 393 0.000117644 5 388 -97%
2021 358 0.000105669 358 -100%
2022 320 0.000094587 5 315 -97%
2023 317 0.000095736 6 311 -96%
2024 322 0.00009674 322 -100%

Explore other names

These names are alphabetically near to Nelson:

  1. Nels
  2. Nelsa
  3. Nelse
  4. Nelsi
  5. Nelsie
  6. Nelson (this page)
  7. Nelsy
  8. Nelta
  9. Nelton
  10. Nelva
  11. Nelvia