A LITTLE UNCOMMON. ENTIRELY YOURS.
Meaning, origin and pronunciation, with published usage by place and year.
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Gave, in the independent Hebrew name; longer-name meanings differ.
The exact English entry gives Hebrew natan, gave, and separately documents Jonathan shortening. The scholarly dictionary describes Jonathan and Natanael short-form traditions. A gift-from-God explanation can reflect a longer name, but is not assigned as the literal translation of every Nathan.
Hebrew name, also used as a short form of longer Hebrew names.
The reviewed sources document both the independent Biblical name and longer-name connections. The bearer’s intended tradition is not selected from spelling or country statistics.
/ˈneɪθən/
Directly recorded English pronunciation of the exact given-name spelling. The plain-text guide is approximate; a bearer’s preferred reading can differ.
Recorded English reading, as published. Accents and preferred pronunciations can differ.
Counts apply only to the exact spelling, place, year and recorded usage shown. Places are separate; these figures are never added into a worldwide total. Missing or suppressed records never mean zero.
| Place | Year | Recorded usage | Published births | Rank | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Canada | 2000 | Girls | 5 | 2491 | 2025 figures are preliminary. Quebec counts below five are randomly imputed by the publisher before national aggregation. Accents are removed in the source; this profile was matched only where the catalog spelling was unambiguous. Unpublished values are unknown, not zero. Rank basis: source published. |
| Canada | 2025 | Boys | 895 · preliminary | 17 | 2025 figures are preliminary. Quebec counts below five are randomly imputed by the publisher before national aggregation. Accents are removed in the source; this profile was matched only where the catalog spelling was unambiguous. Unpublished values are unknown, not zero. Rank basis: source published. |
| France | 2007 | Girls | 5 (rounded to 5) | 5550 | Counts are rounded to the nearest multiple of five. Ranks use unrounded publisher counts with randomly ordered ties; equally rounded counts can have different ranks. National coverage excludes Mayotte before 2012. Missing years are unavailable, not zero. Automated direction labels are withheld for this rounded-count series. Rank basis: source published. |
| France | 2025 | Boys | 1,235 (rounded to 5) | 39 | Counts are rounded to the nearest multiple of five. Ranks use unrounded publisher counts with randomly ordered ties; equally rounded counts can have different ranks. National coverage excludes Mayotte before 2012. Missing years are unavailable, not zero. Automated direction labels are withheld for this rounded-count series. Rank basis: source published. |
| England & Wales | 2025 | Boys | 528 | 99 | Source-reported counts; unpublished names are not zero. Rank basis: source published. |
| Northern Ireland | 2025 | Boys | 17 | 138 | Source-reported counts; unpublished names are not zero. Rank basis: source published. |
| Scotland | 2025 | Boys | 77 | 56 | Source-reported counts; unpublished names are not zero. Rank basis: source published. |
| Ireland | 2025 | Boys | 82 | 71 | Names below three occurrences are unpublished. Accent recording changed in 2018; comparisons across that boundary may not describe the same spelling coverage. Counts refer to registrations in the year. Missing years are unavailable, not zero. Rank basis: source published. |
| United States | 2025 | Girls | 5 | 14942 | Source-reported counts; unpublished names are not zero. Rank basis: calculated from published counts. |
| United States | 2025 | Boys | 4,975 | 63 | Source-reported counts; unpublished names are not zero. Rank basis: calculated from published counts. |
Canada, Ireland and France coverage includes confidently matched existing profiles only; unmatched spellings are awaiting review. French counts are rounded to five.
Open an entry for its source, credit, licence and full qualifications. Different name traditions remain separate.
Checked against cited source
The exact English entry explicitly documents given-name use. This is separate from linguistic origin, nationality, ancestry and religious identity. Credit: Wiktionary contributors; adapted and condensed by Rare Baby Names. No source audio reused.
Credit: Wiktionary contributors. Adapted by Rare Baby Names: wording shortened and name contexts separated. Recorded pronunciations are shown as published.
This adapted text is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Checked against cited source
The exact English entry gives Hebrew natan, gave, and separately documents Jonathan shortening. The scholarly dictionary describes Jonathan and Natanael short-form traditions. A gift-from-God explanation can reflect a longer name, but is not assigned as the literal translation of every Nathan. Credit: Wiktionary contributors; adapted and condensed by Rare Baby Names. No source audio reused.
Credit: Wiktionary contributors. Adapted by Rare Baby Names: wording shortened and name contexts separated. Recorded pronunciations are shown as published.
This adapted text is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Checked against cited source
Explicitly listed under given-name diminutives in the English entry. This is optional personal usage; statistical spellings and pronunciation remain separate. Credit: Wiktionary contributors; adapted and condensed by Rare Baby Names. No source audio reused.
Credit: Wiktionary contributors. Adapted by Rare Baby Names: wording shortened and name contexts separated. Recorded pronunciations are shown as published.
This adapted text is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Checked against cited source
Explicitly listed under given-name diminutives in the English entry. This is optional personal usage; statistical spellings and pronunciation remain separate. Credit: Wiktionary contributors; adapted and condensed by Rare Baby Names. No source audio reused.
Credit: Wiktionary contributors. Adapted by Rare Baby Names: wording shortened and name contexts separated. Recorded pronunciations are shown as published.
This adapted text is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Checked against cited source
The English entry explicitly documents Nathan as a short form of Jonathan in addition to its independent Biblical name history. Neither history is assigned to every bearer. Credit: Wiktionary contributors; adapted and condensed by Rare Baby Names. No source audio reused.
Credit: Wiktionary contributors. Adapted by Rare Baby Names: wording shortened and name contexts separated. Recorded pronunciations are shown as published.
This adapted text is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Checked against cited source
The scholarly Nathan entry identifies a modern short-form connection to Natanael; the same page explicitly lists Nathaniel among the regional forms of that parent name. This connection does not replace Nathan’s independent Biblical history. Credit: Eva Brylla and Katharina Leibring, Förnamn i Sverige – kortfattat namnlexikon, second edition (Isof, 2026). Original factual summary by Rare Baby Names; copyright remains with Charlotta Seiler Brylla, Katharina Leibring and Isof. No source prose, image or audio reproduced.
Original factual summary; source rights retained
Checked against cited source
The scholarly Nathan entry identifies a modern short-form connection to Natanael; the same page explicitly lists Nathaniel among the regional forms of that parent name. This connection does not replace Nathan’s independent Biblical history. Credit: Eva Brylla and Katharina Leibring, Förnamn i Sverige – kortfattat namnlexikon, second edition (Isof, 2026). Original factual summary by Rare Baby Names; copyright remains with Charlotta Seiler Brylla, Katharina Leibring and Isof. No source prose, image or audio reproduced.
Original factual summary; source rights retained
Checked against cited source
The reviewed sources document both the independent Biblical name and longer-name connections. The bearer’s intended tradition is not selected from spelling or country statistics. Credit: Wiktionary contributors; adapted and condensed by Rare Baby Names. No source audio reused.
Credit: Wiktionary contributors. Adapted by Rare Baby Names: wording shortened and name contexts separated. Recorded pronunciations are shown as published.
This adapted text is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Checked against cited source
Directly recorded English pronunciation of the exact given-name spelling. The plain-text guide is approximate; a bearer’s preferred reading can differ. Credit: Wiktionary contributors; adapted and condensed by Rare Baby Names. No source audio reused.
Credit: Wiktionary contributors. Adapted by Rare Baby Names: wording shortened and name contexts separated. Recorded pronunciations are shown as published.
This adapted text is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Checked against cited source
Printed page 298 documents Jonathan shortening and later Natanael connections, and lists regional forms of Natanael. Religious-name content describes history rather than assigning belief or ancestry. Credit: Eva Brylla and Katharina Leibring, Förnamn i Sverige – kortfattat namnlexikon, second edition (Isof, 2026). Original factual summary by Rare Baby Names; copyright remains with Charlotta Seiler Brylla, Katharina Leibring and Isof. No source prose, image or audio reproduced.
Original factual summary; source rights retained
Checked against cited source
The exact entry gives the Hebrew gave account, Jonathan shortening, and Nat/Nate given-name diminutives. Literary examples are not used as independent etymological proof. Credit: Wiktionary contributors; adapted and condensed by Rare Baby Names. No source audio reused.
Credit: Wiktionary contributors. Adapted by Rare Baby Names: wording shortened and name contexts separated. Recorded pronunciations are shown as published.
This adapted text is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Checked against cited source
Vowel-phoneme count for the cited reading(s) only; no universal count or source-language transfer asserted. Credit: Wiktionary contributors; adapted and condensed by Rare Baby Names. No source audio reused.
Credit: Wiktionary contributors. Adapted by Rare Baby Names: wording shortened and name contexts separated. Recorded pronunciations are shown as published.
This adapted text is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
CC BY-SA 4.0
Checked against cited source
Listed alongside Nathan in the scholarly entry. Native-language pronunciation is not transferred to the existing English guide. Credit: Eva Brylla and Katharina Leibring, Förnamn i Sverige – kortfattat namnlexikon, second edition (Isof, 2026). Original factual summary by Rare Baby Names; copyright remains with Charlotta Seiler Brylla, Katharina Leibring and Isof. No source prose, image or audio reproduced.
Original factual summary; source rights retained
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Attribution: Source: NISRA : Website: www.nisra.gov.uk
License: Open Government Licence v3.0
Attribution: (C) Crown copyright. Data supplied by National Records of Scotland.
License: Open Government Licence v3.0
Attribution: Source: Office for National Statistics licensed under the Open Government Licence
License: Open Government Licence v3.0
Attribution: U.S. Social Security Administration
Credit: Statistics Canada, Table 17-10-0147-01, 1991–2025, released 23 September 2026.
License: Statistics Canada Open Licence
Adaptation: Adapted from Statistics Canada, First names at birth by sex at birth, selected indicators, Table 17-10-0147-01, reference years 1991–2025. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product.
Credit: Central Statistics Office, Ireland, VSA50 and VSA60, updated 27 February 2026.
License: CC BY 4.0
Adaptation: Adapted by Rare Baby Names: joined the published count and rank indicators and matched unambiguous existing spellings. Source values retained.
Credit: Source : Insee, Fichier des prénoms, updated 16 July 2026.
License: Open Licence 2.0 (Etalab)
Adaptation: Adapted by Rare Baby Names: column names and sex codes mapped and unique case-only spellings matched to existing profiles. Published rounded counts and ranks retained.
