Nigel

Gender	Male
Word/name	Niall -> Njáll -> Neel, Niel, Nihel -> Nigellus -> Nigel
Meaning	ultimately from the Gaelic Niall
Region of origin	Normandy and England
Related names	(female)

Nigel /ˈnaɪdʒəl/ is an English masculine given name.

The English Nigel is commonly found in records dating from the Middle Ages; however, it was not used much before being revived by 19th-century antiquarians. For instance, Sir Walter Scott published The Fortunes of Nigel in 1822, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle published Sir Nigel in 1905–06. Nigel was a common name for boys born in England and Wales from the 1950s to the 1970s (see below).

Nigel has never been as common in other countries, but was among the 1,000 most common names for boys born in the United States from 1971 to 2010. Numbers peaked in 1994 when 447 were recorded (it was the 478th most common boys' name that year). The peak popularity at 0.02% of boys' names in 1994 compares to a peak popularity in England and Wales of about 1.2% in 1963, 60 times higher.

In Australian English it is a colloquial term for a male social misfit or a friendless person, originating from the name being unusual in the 1980s and alliterating with "no-friends" (both start with n).

The name is derived from the Latin Nigellus. This Latin word would at first sight seem to derive from the Latin niger, meaning "black"; however this is now considered an example of an incorrect etymology created by French-speaking clerics, who knew Latin as well, to translate the Norman first name Neel in the Latin written documents. The Latin word nigellus gave birth to Old French neel (modern nielle), meaning “niello, black enamel” and it explains the confusion, because the clerics believed it was the same etymology as the first name Neel, spelled the same way.

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