Nigel
given name · Latin script
Meaning: From Latin and Greek; means “black, dark”; used for men
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/naɪdʒəl/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Nigel is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the United Kingdom than in any other country.
- GBUnited Kingdom≈1 in 1K(inferred from the name graph)
- NZNew Zealand≈1 in 1.5K
- AUAustralia≈1 in 2.4K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- United Kingdom (inferred from the name graph)
- 2 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 455 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 588 (inferred from the name graph)
≈63,000 people, est.
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
Zimbabwe, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
From Latin and Greek; means “black, dark”; used for men.
Sources 1
- Tên Họ Người Việt Nam
Attested across 3 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Nigel counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GB United Kingdom | #155 | ≈63,000 est. | ≈1 in 1K | 3 | Nigel | 347 |
| ZW Zimbabwe | #550 | ≈25,000 est. | ≈1 in 588 | — | Nigel | 38 |
| US United States | — | 14,004 | 1 in 24K | 14K | Nigel | 455 |
| AU Australia | #394 | ≈11,000 est. | ≈1 in 2.4K | 70 | Nigel | 240 |
| ZA South Africa | #643 | ≈9,900 est. | ≈1 in 5.7K | — | Nigel | 104 |
| NZ New Zealand | #182 | ≈3,300 est. | ≈1 in 1.5K | 10 | Nigel | 145 |
| GY Guyana | — | 856 | 1 in 876 | 856 | — | 11 |
Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: NISRA — Baby names Northern Ireland full list (1997–present); Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; NSW BDM — Popular baby names (1952–present); DIA — Baby name popularity (1900–present); Guyana — Official List of Electors July 2025. Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Nigel is also recorded in 4 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In Irish, From Irish Niall via Njal and Latinised Nigellus; used in Ireland since the 15th century.
as a nameIrish first names
Anglicized form of the medieval name Nigellus, a Latinized version (ostensibly representing a diminutive of Latin niger ‘black’) of the vernacular Ni(h)el, i.e. Neil. Although it is frequently found in medieval records, this form was probably not used in everyday life before its
as a nameA concise dictionary of first names
In English, A male given name from Latin, of mostly British usage.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
English: Anglicized form of the medieval name Nigellus , a Latinized version (ostensibly representing a diminutive of Latin niger black) of the vernacular Ni(h)el , i.e. NEIL . Although it is frequently found in medieval records, this form was probably not used in everyday life before its revival by antiquarians such as Sir Walter Scott in the 19th century. Feminine: Nigella .
as a word
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Nigel Bruceb. 1895GBBritish actor (1895-1953)
- Nigel Stockb. 1919GBBritish actor (1919-1986)
- Nigel Hawthorneb. 1929GBBritish actor (1929–2001)
- Nigel Lawsonb. 1932GBBritish peer and politician (1932–2023)
- Sam Neillb. 1947NZnot in their usual nameNew Zealand actor (1947–2026)
- Nigel Mansellb. 1953GBBritish racing driver (born 1953)
- Nigel Kennedyb. 1956GBBritish-born violinist and violist (born 1956)
- Mr. Brexitb. 1964GBnot in their usual nameBritish politician
- Nigel Shortb. 1965GBEnglish chess player and writer
- Nigel Godrichb. 1971GBEnglish record producer and sound engineer
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
How to address them(machine-generated)
A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 72 sources across 41 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 14K | #1,977 |
| GY Guyana | Guyana — Official List of Electors July 2025 | 2025 | 856 | #79 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 139 | #1,977 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 71 | — |
| AU Australia | AU state BDM — consolidated top baby names (NSW + SA + QLD) | 1979 | 70 | #99 |
| AU Australia | NSW BDM — Popular baby names (1952–present) | 1979 | 70 | #99 |
| AU Australia | QLD BDM — Top 100 Baby Names Queensland (1960–present) | 1979 | 40 | — |
| NZ New Zealand | DIA — Baby name popularity (1900–present) | 1999 | 10 | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 1994 | 7 | — |
| AU Australia | Australian national given names (aggregated state BDM) | 1991 | 7 | — |
| GB United Kingdom | NISRA — Baby names Northern Ireland full list (1997–present) | 2000 | 3 | #277 |
| GB United Kingdom | NRS — Baby names Scotland full list (1974–present) | 1996 | 3 | #425 |
Reference works 4
- Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- Rymut, Słownik nazwisk współcześnie w Polsce używanych (10 vols, IJP PAN, Kraków 1992–1994) — every Polish surname in the PESEL register at the end of 1990, with bearer counts nationally and per voivodeship1990
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- What does the name Nigel mean, and where does it come from?
- From Latin and Greek; means “black, dark”; used for men. Recorded by Tên Họ Người Việt Nam.
- In which country does Nigel have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 63 thousand people named Nigel in the United Kingdom, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled nigel.
- Is Nigel a male or female name?
- Nigel is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.
- How common is the name Nigel?
- In the United States, the national register counted 14,004 people named Nigel in 2020, about 1 in 24 thousand residents.
- How common is Nigel compared with other names?
- In the United Kingdom, Nigel is the 155th most common given name of 404,737 given names recorded there.
- What are other forms of the name Nigel?
- In the etymology graph, Neil and Nigellus are forms of the same name in other languages.
- How do you pronounce Nigel?
- A machine transcription gives /naɪdʒəl/ (IPA) for English.
What do you want to know about Nigel?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/nigelThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Nigel” — the 155th most common given name in United Kingdom. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.