Nathan is a name of Hebrew origin and is Biblical. It is pronounced NAY-than. The name itself Nathan is of course masculine. In Hebrew, Nathan means “giver”. In English, Nathan means “God has given”. Interestingly, many websites devoted to baby names has the meaning of Nathan as “God’s gift to women”, this is of course incorrect, but may be one reason to contribute to Nathan’s popularity. The name Nathan is primarily used by English, Hebrew, Dutch and Polish speaking families.

The history of the name Nathan dates back to the Old Testament. In which Nathan is a prophet who served King David and his son, who’s name was also Nathan. There is also Nathan, son of David and his wife Bathsheba (1 Chr 3:5; Luke 3:31). It also appears many times in the Hebrew bible, there is at least 6 different instances when a Nathan is mentioned. From then on in history, the name Nathan appears in the 2nd century as Rabbi Nathan, there was Nathan of Gaza a prophet in the 17th century, and the timeline continues into today’s time.

As far as popularity, Nathan is one of those names that is traditional and classic. Meaning that it has its ups and downs when it comes to popularity, but its always present. In the United States in every decade since 1880, the name Nathan has been in the top 1000 names. Nathan is a popular first name and is a very popular surname. The Social Security Administration for the years 2000-2003 ranked Nathan as the 29th most popular name for males during this time.

Many people throughout history to present times have had the name Nathan. For example, in the Revolutionary War there was hero Nathan Hale who served as an American spy during the war, there is actor/singer Nathan Lane, Canadian actor Nathan Fillion, guitarist Nathan December, singer “Nat” King Cole, American journalist Nathan Einhorn, Nathan Horn an Australian soccer player, and American author Nathan McCall, just to name a few.

Nathan is also the name of two places. There is Nathan, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane, Australia, and Nathan Road, a famous shopping street in Hong Kong. There is also “Nathan’s Famous” which is a fast food business; “Lion Nathan” an Australasian alcoholic beverages company; and a 1779 Enlightment play “Nathan the Wise” by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing.

The nickname for Nathan is “Nate” and/or “Nat”. The name Nathan can function as the short form of “Jonathan” or “Nathaniel”. The alternate spellings for Nathan are Nathon , Nathen and Natan. The most related names to Nathan are Jonathan, Nathaniel and Lathan.