Nestor
Nestor reached its high-water mark in 1991 at number 586, and has been recorded 10,430 times in all. In 2025 it ranked 1,529th. About 9,100 Nestors are alive in the United States today, and half of them are over 29.
Popularity, 1880–2025
boys named Nestor
By the numbers
- Total US births
- 10,430
- Estimated living today
- 9,100
- Median age today
- 29
- Peak year
- 1991
- Best rank
- 586th
- Rank in 2025
- 1,529th
- First recorded
- 1885
How old the living Nestors are
born that year still alive today
Of the 10,430 babies given the name since 1885, about 9,100 are alive — 88 in every hundred. Roughly 2,100 of them are children and 450 are 65 or over. The dotted line is the median: half were born before 1996 and half after.
An estimate, not a count. SSA births aged forward through SSA cohort life tables, which know nothing about who left the country or arrived in it — so for a name that mostly came to America rather than being born in it, this is a floor rather than a figure. Where you fall among living Americans.
Where the name comes from
Origin Ancient Greek
From Ancient Greek Νέστωρ, possibly from νέομαι (“to return safely”), νόστος (“homecoming”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Notable Nestors
- Néstor Kirchner (1950–2010)President of Argentina from 2003 to 2007
- Nestor Makhno (1888–1934)Ukrainian anarchist revolutionary
- Nestor the Chronicler (1056–1114)Saint and chronicler of Kievan Rus'
- Néstor Gorosito (born 1964)Argentine association football player
- Nestor Carbonell (born 1967)American actor
- Néstor Pitana (born 1975)former actor and football referee
- Nestor Irankunda (born 2006)Australian association football player
- Néstor Araujo (born 1991)Mexican association football player
People named Nestor with articles in the most Wikipedia languages. Data from Wikidata (CC0).
Where Nestor is most common
Relative to how many babies each state records, Nestor is most concentrated in California (4.2×), New Mexico (2.9×), Texas (2.6×), Arizona (2.2×).
Total births recorded in each state since 1910. Browse names by state.
Names of 1991
The most popular boys’ names the year Nestor peaked:
Nestor elsewhere
| Country | Spelling | Births | Best rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| France boys | Nestor | 2,330 | 175th |
| France girls | Nestor | 135 | 1,952nd |
| Belgium boys | Nestor | 131 | 575th |
| England and Wales boys | Nestor | 79 | 2,664th |
| Poland boys | Nestor | 61 birth registrations | 379th |
Counts come from each country's own records and are not comparable with the US figures above, which cover different years and a different definition of a recorded name. Where a country writes the name several ways, the spellings are added together and the most common is shown. A row marked name registrations is counting something else: Portugal ranks each of a child's two given names separately, so a girl registered Maria Leonor is in both the Maria row and the Leonor row, and that figure is not a number of children.
Nestor: rank by region
In 2025, Nestor was given 5 times or more in 1 region of Belgium.
| Region | Spelling | Place | Children |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flanders | Nestor | 914 | 5 |
In 2023, Nestor was given 2 times or more in 1 region of Poland.
| Region | Spelling | Place | Children |
|---|---|---|---|
| Śląskie | Nestor | 258 | 2 |
In 2024, with the country taken in 11 areas rather than 3, Nestor appears in the lists for Province of West Flanders (193rd).
Each of these is the top of a list the statistics office cut off somewhere – Belgium below 5 children, Poland below 2 children – and published nothing after. So a region missing here is one where the name fell outside what was published, not one where it went unused. Places are shared where names tie, and the further down a list a place is, the more names can share it.
Nestor by city
| City | Years | Births | Best rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Berlin boys | 2017–2023 | 3 | 515th |
One city over a few years, so these are much smaller numbers than the national ones above and not comparable with them.
Nestor among the living
How many people each country's register counts under the name, rather than how many were given it in any one year. Each register was read on one date, and they are not the same date.
| Country | Spelling | First forename | Any forename |
|---|---|---|---|
| Finland boys | Nestor | 109 | 588 |
A count of people on a register – Finland on 4 August 2026 – and not of births, so it cannot be compared with the figures above. Names with very few bearers are withheld, and a dash in the first-forename column means the register would not say rather than that nobody goes by it.
Where Nestor lives in Spain
Not a count of births but of people: 7,258 men called Nestor were living in Spain on 1 January 2025, of every age, born in any year. Where they live is not spread evenly.
Men: the provinces where it is densest
| Province | Spelling | People | Per thousand | Place there |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Palmas, Las | Nestor | 1,090 | 1.874 | 75 |
| Santa Cruz de Tenerife | Nestor | 474 | 0.889 | 156 |
| Huesca | Nestor | 79 | 0.674 | 159 |
| Teruel | Nestor | 46 | 0.663 | 169 |
| Castellón/Castelló | Nestor | 197 | 0.631 | 198 |
| Gipuzkoa | Nestor | 171 | 0.477 | 251 |
Listed in 51 of Spain's 52 provinces. In the other 1 it is either held by fewer than 5 people – the point below which the source withholds a name – or it fell past the 5,000 names the source will print for one province. Neither means nobody there is called it. The rate is the source's own, not a share worked out here.
Related names
Nestor against another name
Two names on one chart, with the year one overtook the other.
Try it on yourself
Source: US Social Security Administration, national and state baby-name files, 1880–2025. Counts include only births registered with the SSA, and names with fewer than five births in a year are not published. The living estimate applies SSA cohort life tables to those births; it counts people born in the United States, so it misses anyone who arrived later and anyone who has left.