Nils is a boy's name of Scandinavian origin meaning “donkey.” In 2024 it was given to 20 boys in the United States.
Nils belongs to the Scandinavian tradition. Its meaning — “donkey” — is the sense carried by its Scandinavian roots, and it is the meaning we verified against published sources for this page. It travels in a few spellings: Niels.
In the United States, Nils first appears in Social Security records in 1888. It climbed to its best-ever rank of #889 in 1888, and in 2024 20 babies received the name — 3,061 in total since 1880. Those are the official counts, not estimates.
More names from the Scandinavian shelf:
Nils means “donkey” in its Scandinavian roots. We check every meaning against published sources before it appears here.
Nils is a boy name. In 2024, 20 babies received the name in the US.
Nils comes from the Scandinavian tradition. It is also spelled Niels.
Nils first appears in US records in 1888. Its best-ever ranking was #889 in 1888, and 20 babies were given the name in 2024.
Nils is pronounced /niːls/ (IPA).
Meaning and origin for this page were checked against this source. US popularity figures are from the Social Security Administration's public baby-names data. England & Wales figures are from the Office for National Statistics. If you spot an error, write to [email protected] — accuracy is the whole point of this site, and corrections are made fast.
NamePetal