Nathaniel is a name of Hebrew origin, meaning "gift from God". It is composed of the elements "natan", which means "to give", and "yâlekh", which means "of God". The name Nathaniel was first introduced to Western culture through the New Testament of the Bible, where it is used as one of the names of Saint Nathanael. In the Gospel of John, Nathanael is described as a man from Cana in Galilee who is called by Jesus to be his disciple. Throughout history, many notable figures have been named Nathaniel, including the English poet and dramatist Thomas Nash (1567-1601) and American politician Nathaniel Gorham (1738-1796). Today, Nathaniel continues to be a popular choice for boys' names in many countries around the world.
The name Nathaniel experienced significant fluctuations in popularity over the past century and a half. It started strong with 60 births in 1880 but dipped to as low as 43 births in 1897. The peak of popularity occurred around the mid-20th century, reaching an all-time high of 6797 births in 2000. However, since then, there has been a steady decline, with only 2507 births recorded in 2023. Overall, Nathaniel has been a consistently used name over time, with a total of 281917 births reported between 1880 and 2023.