The first name Nathan comes from Hebrew and is probably a short form of either Jonathan or Nathanael. In any case, the name means something like ‘God has given’ or ‘gift from God’.
Nathan is a male first name. In very rare cases it is also used for girls.
The first name Nathan is one of the top 100 most popular boys names in the US – currently at #41 in our SmartGenius ranking. Over 1,000 babies each year are named Nathan, accounting for approximately 0.40 % of all newborn boys. In total, there are currently 565,178 people – children, adults and seniors – named Nathan living in the United States, which is approximately 0.17 % of the entire population.
The first name Nathan comes from Hebrew and is probably a short form of either Jonathan or Nathanael. In any case, the name means something like ‘God has given’ or ‘gift from God’.
Interesting facts! Nathan the Wise is the title of a drama by the German poet Gotthold Ephraim Lessing. It is about tolerance, especially between the three monotheistic world religions.
Nathan Sawaya (*1973)
Nathan Sawaya is a U.S. artist known for creating sculptures out of LEGO bricks. He began his career as a lawyer but discovered his passion for creating art out of LEGO bricks and eventually became a full-time LEGO artist. He has had several exhibitions of his work, including 'The Art of the Brick' exhibition, which is considered the largest LEGO art exhibition in the world. His sculptures include re-creations of classic works of art, such as Michelangelo's 'David' and Auguste Rodin's 'The Thinker', as well as pieces of his own design.
Nathan Fillion (*1971)
The Canadian actor has appeared in many television series and films and began his career in the theater world. He is best known for his role as Richard Castle in the ABCs "Castle", in which he starred in from 2009 to 2016. He has also played the role of Captain Malcolm Reynolds in the cult science fiction series "Firefly" (2002) and its feature film "Serenity" (2005). In addition to acting, he also works as a voice actor for animated series and films, for example, he lent his voice to the character Caleb in the synchronisation of the anime "Bungo Stray Dogs" (2016).
Nathan Rosen (1909 - 1995)
The American-Israeli physicist Nathan Rosen was an assistant to Albert Einstein and worked with him and Boris Podolsky in the field of quantum mechanics. In 1935, they formulated the so-called 'EPR paradox', which challenges the fundamental assumptions of quantum mechanics and is considered one of the most important examples of the incompatibility of quantum mechanics and general relativity. In addition to the paradox, Einstein and Rosen also described the 'Einstein-Rosen Bridge' (wormholes) in more detail. Rosen also worked in other areas of physics and mathematics, including nuclear physics and relativity.
Nathan Chen (*1999)
Nathan Chen began figure skating at the age of three. He quickly established himself as one of the most talented figure skaters in the world and has successfully competed in numerous championships and competitions. He is a five-time national champion and has also competed in the World Cup and the Winter Olympics. Known for his impressive technical skills, Chen is the first figure skater to land five quadruple jumps and the first to land six quadruple jumps in a single event. He also performed the first quadruple Lutz jump and the first quadruple Axel jump in a single event.
Nathan Drake
Nathan Drake is the protagonist of the Uncharted video game series developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony. The first Uncharted game, 'Uncharted: Drake's Fortune', was released in 2007, and there have been several sequels since then. Drake is a treasure hunter and adventurer on a quest to find historical relics and treasures. He is known for conducting his treasure hunts in exotic and dangerous environments, such as deserts, jungles and mountains. Drake is one of the most well-known and popular characters in the gaming world, and the Uncharted games have received a large following and positive reviews.
Nathan of Gaza (1643/44 -1680)
Nathan of Gaza was a Jewish mystic, theologian and scribe who lived in Gaza, in what is now Israel, in the 17th century. He is best known as one of the leading representatives of the Shabbetai Zvi movement, a messianic movement in Judaism that emerged in the 17th century. Nathan of Gaza had a close relationship with Shabbetai Zvi, the leader of the movement, and recognised him as the Messiah, prophesying that he would redeem the Jewish people from the long Diaspora. He himself also had a large following and a great influence on the Shabbetai Zvi movement.
When you hear the name Nathan, you might first think of people. But did you know that there are also places with the name Nathan? Are you also called Nathan? Maybe one day you will visit the places that are named just like you...
in East Antarctica's Victoria Land are called the Nathan Hills. They there named after the geologist Simon Nathan.
is one of the most famous streets in Hong Kong. It is also known as the 'Golden Mile' and runs through the heart of Kowloon.
In the city of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia you can find a suburb called Nathan. It has a population of about 1,000 people.
If we dig really deep into our statistics, we find that there are very few boys' names that have been consistently popular for so long that they have been given to newborns in every single year since the beginning of our records in 1880. In fact, there are only 442 boys' names that appear in our statistics in every single year, and Nathan is one of those very special classics. At the same time, Nathan has never been more popular than it is in this century - in 2004 the name even made it to rank #20 of the most popular boys' names, easily landing in the top 100 of our SmartGenius first name statistics.
In years where the graph has no value, the name Nathan was given less than five times or even none at all in the entire USA.
...because: In 2022, 5,526 boys were born and given the name Nathan by their parents. That puts Nathan at #60 on our list of most popular boys' names. It was much less popular in 1946 - only 557 parents chose this name for their newborn son and it ranked 260 on the popularity scale of all boys' names.
There are only 386 different male names registered in every single state in the U.S., and Nathan is one of them. However, Nathan is not equally widespread in all states, but people in Utah seem to particularly fancy this name – the 10,195 men called Nathan who live here are 0,749% of all male residents and push their name up to #23 in our SmartGenius statistics, easily placing it in the top 100 most common male names in Utah. If you look at all the states in the USA together, you can currently find as many as 565,178 people with the name Nathan. Across all regions and age groups, this lands Nathan on position 56 in our SmartGenius ranking of the top male names – of course, the current popularity as a baby name for newborns looks somewhat different, as you can see from the statistics above.
Well, you might say, you probably figured that out yourself! But what you might not know is: 3.0% of all common boys' names in the US begin with an N. This means that N as the first letter for boys' names is neither particularly common nor rare. The most common first letters of boys' names are J, A and D, while X, U and Q are the least common initials of boys' names.
With six letters, the name Nathan is of average length. In fact, 28% of all common first names in the US consist of exactly six letters. 24% of all first names are shorter, while 48% have seven letters or more. On average, first names in the US (not counting hyphenated names) are 6.5 letters long. There are no significant differences between boys' and girls' names.
Thus, if 3.0% of all boys’ names start with an N, this initial letter is slightly less common than all other letters on average. Nevertheless, there are boys' names with N that are quite common in the U.S., the most common at present is Nicholas.
If your name is Nathan and someone asks after your name, you can of course just tell them what it is. But sometimes that isn't so easy - what if it's too loud, and you don't understand them well? Or what if the other person is so far away that you can see them but not hear them? In these situations, you can communicate your name in so many other ways: you call spell it, sign it, or even use a flag to wave it...
So that everyone really understands you when you have to spell the name Nathan, you can simply say:
Nut
Apple
Tiger
Hat
Apple
Nut
Braille is made up of dots, which the blind and visually impaired can feel to read words.
Nathan
Nathan
Just use American Sign Language!
These flags are used for maritime communication - each flag represents a letter.
N
A
T
H
A
N
In the navy, sailors of two ships might wave flags to each other to send messages. A sailor holds two flags in specific positions to represent different letters.
N
A
T
H
A
N
In Morse code, letters and other characters are represented only by a series of short and long tones. For example, a short tone followed by a long tone stands for the letter A. Nathan sounds like this:
