Niels vs Niema
American parents have registered 1,462 Nielses since 1880, against 513 Niemas. Niels is still ahead, with 15 babies in 2025.
Babies given each name, 1880–2025
Niels Niema
Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.
Who was ahead
Of the 116 years in which either name was published, Niels for 105 years and Niema for 11 years. The lead changed hands 10 times.
Side by side
| Niels | Niema | |
|---|---|---|
| Total US births | 1,462 | 513 |
| Most in one year | 31 | 37 |
| Babies in 2025 | 15 | 6 |
| Estimated living today | 1,000 | 500 |
| Median age today | 39 | 20 |
| Peak year | 1957 | 2008 |
| Best rank | 1,411th boys | 4,179th girls |
| Rank in 2025 | 5,861st | 13,208th |
| First recorded | 1893 | 1970 |
| Girls / boys | 0 / 1,462 | 513 / 0 |
A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.
Which name is older
Half of the Nielses alive today are over 39; half the Niemas are over 20. That is 19 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.
Both names abroad
Countries whose statistics office publishes both names, so the comparison can be made somewhere other than the United States.
| Country | Niels | Niema |
|---|---|---|
| France | 3,225 | 40 |
| England and Wales | 37 | 3 |
Every spelling a country files separately is added together, over whatever years that country publishes — which is not the same range in any two of them, so read the columns against each other and not the rows.
Compare something else
Related comparisons
Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Niels and Niema.