Niall

Where Niall comes from

Borrowed from Irish Niall or Scottish Gaelic Niall, ultimately from Old Irish Níall, of uncertain original meaning. Suggestions include nél (“cloud”) and nïa (“champion”), which is from Proto-Indo-European *h₃neyd- (“to revile”). Doublet of Neil.
— Wiktionary's entry for Niall
  • Irish
  • Scottish Gaelic
  • 2 syllables
Niall through the years
  1. 1955
    First appearance
    #3,886 among boys with 5 babies, the first year at least five got the name.
  2. 2024
    Peak, #1,573
    110 babies named Niall, the most in any year.
In the dictionary
  • A male given name from Irish or Scottish Gaelic used in Ireland and Scotland since the Middle Ages.
Namesakes

We look up famous namesakes for names that have made the top 1,000. Niall hasn't yet.

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.