Nels

Where Nels comes from

Nels hasn't made it into the dictionaries we draw on, and nobody well known enough for an encyclopedia has carried it yet — so for now its story is the one the SSA record tells. Names that spell a familiar sound a new way often live here for a while before anyone writes them down.

Along the way
  1. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #526 among boys — 12 babies in the first year on record.
  2. 1884
    Peak, #306
    32 babies named Nels — more than any year before or since.
  3. 1886
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #470.
  4. 1902
    Nels Stewart born
    Canadian ice hockey player
  5. 1956
    Nels Cline born
    American guitarist and composer
In the dictionary

No dictionary entry for this spelling — which is its own kind of rare.

Namesakes
  • Nels Cline · American guitarist and composer, born 1956
  • Nels Stewart · Canadian ice hockey player, 1902–1957
  • Nels H. Smith · American politician, 1884–1976
  • Nels Anderson · sociologist, 1889–1986
  • Nels Johnson · American clockmaker, 1838–1915

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.