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Nathaniel

Boy name · 566 babies recorded · 1974–2025

Nathaniel: 566 babies born in Scotland since 1974, given to boys, peaking at 29 births in 2017.

Nathaniel comes from the Hebrew name Netan'el, meaning "gift of God." The Puritans embraced it in the 17th century, and it appears often in the Bible as one of David's brothers and a lesser-known apostle. The best-known bearer is probably the American novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne, author of *The Scarlet Letter*. The name shares its root with the prophet Nathan, who gave his name to the city of Nathanael in the Bible, though no modern place is directly named after a Nathaniel. As for a variant, Nathan is the short form, while the French Nathanaël is popular in Quebec and Scotland alike. Interestingly, the name saw a modest revival in Scotland in the 1980s, reflecting a broader trend toward classic biblical names.