Given name & surname · also Danish
Nielsen
Nielsen is a surname from Danish, ultimately from Norwegian. It is used in English, Danish, Icelandic, and Norwegian.
Meaning & origin
Where it comes from
Nielsen comes from Danish, and ultimately from Norwegian.
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
How it developed
In Danish usage, Nielsen as a surname has a “son of” formation linked to Niels.
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1991. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Nielsen through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 11
- 11 boys · 0 girls
- Most popular year
- 2019
- 6 babies
- 2025
- 0
- Outside the ranked list
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- —
- Too few births to compare
By the numbers
The most recent published U.S. birth count for boys is 6 in 2019. Later missing counts do not mean the name went unused. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 171 as a first name in 2020; 42,520 as a surname in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Nielsen’s family of names
In Danish usage, Nielsen as a surname has a “son of” formation linked to Niels. In Danish usage, Nielsen as a surname has a conventional equivalent in the English form NICHOLSON. In English usage, Nielsen as a surname shares an earlier linguistic root with NICHOLSON.
Inner ring: spellings · middle: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Around the world
Nielsen has relatives in 7 languages. Lines run from its Norwegian roots to each of them.
Norwegianwhere Nielsen comes from · 1 name
Nicknames & forms 5
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Spellings & scripts 1
The same name written differently, including transliterations into other scripts.
Across languages 3
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
People named Nielsen
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
Similar names
If you love Nielsen, these share its style, era, origin or sound, from outside its own family.
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