Nelson
Nelson was most popular in 1959, when 1,084 boys got the name. In 2025 it ranked number 825 for boys.
Babies named Nelson each year in the US
Girls Boys
Before 1880: about 1 in 339 boys born 1801 to 1810 were named Nelson, from a sample of the 1850, 1880 and 1920 censuses.
See the numbers by decade
| Decade | Girls | Boys |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 0 | 849 |
| 1890s | 0 | 920 |
| 1900s | 0 | 1,064 |
| 1910s | 21 | 4,731 |
| 1920s | 53 | 6,927 |
| 1930s | 51 | 6,473 |
| 1940s | 31 | 7,823 |
| 1950s | 23 | 9,198 |
| 1960s | 45 | 8,562 |
| 1970s | 84 | 6,847 |
| 1980s | 58 | 7,009 |
| 1990s | 38 | 7,164 |
| 2000s | 6 | 5,877 |
| 2010s | 5 | 4,270 |
| 2020s | 16 | 1,995 |
Nelson in other countries
Out of every 10,000 boys born each year, how many were named Nelson.
US England and Wales Scotland France Berlin
The dashed part is the US before 1880, from a census sample. It tidies spellings and leaves out rare names, so it runs higher than the counts that follow.
| Country | Top year | At peak | 2025 rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| US | 1959 | 1 in 1,969 | #825 |
| England and Wales | 1905 | 1 in 3,582 | #1,448 |
| Scotland | 2025 | 1 in 6,547 | #903 |
| France | 2014 | 1 in 1,596 | #695 |
| Berlin | 2023 | 1 in 4,728 | #723 (2023) |
Writing a character named Nelson?
A boy named Nelson was most likely born around 1959.
Where the counts come from: the US from Social Security card records from 1880 (names given to at least 5 babies in a year; years before about 1937 count fewer people, because the cards started then), and before 1880 from Douglas Galbi's tables of a census sample. England and Wales from the Office for National Statistics from 1996, and before that from Stephen Bush's study of local birth records, a sample of about 120,000 births a year (CC BY 4.0). Scotland from National Records of Scotland. Northern Ireland from NISRA. France from INSEE, first names and last names. Italy from ISTAT (CC BY 4.0), the top 50 names a year. Berlin from the city's open data (CC BY 3.0 DE), counting only the first of a child's names. UK figures are Crown copyright, used under the Open Government Licence. US last names from the 2020 census, and before 1850 from the 1790 census. Irish last names from Robert Matheson's report on the births of 1890. Italian last names from the City of Florence (CC BY 4.0). Norwegian last names from Statistics Norway (CC BY 4.0).