Nigel
Nigel 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.
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. 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".
Etymology
The name is derived from the church Latin Nigellus. This Latin word would at first sight seems 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, 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.The Old Norman first name Neel derives from the Norse Njáll. The Norse Njáll, in turn, is derived from the Gaelic Niall.
England and Wales
The following table shows the number of boys given the first name Nigel in specific years in England and Wales. Numbers peaked in about 1963. In 1964 it was the 23rd most popular boys' name. By 2016 the number of boys named Nigel had dropped [|below] 3, the minimum number reported by the ONS.| Year | Number |
| 1840 | 1 |
| 1850 | 2 |
| 1860 | 1 |
| 1870 | 7 |
| 1880 | 8 |
| 1890 | 10 |
| 1900 | 18 |
| 1910 | 24 |
| 1920 | 71 |
| 1930 | 164 |
| 1940 | 445 |
| 1950 | 1943 |
| 1960 | 4383 |
| 1963 | 5529 |
| 1970 | 2469 |
| 1980 | 413 |
| 1990 | 125 |
| 2000 | 25 |
| 2010 | 18 |
| 2015 | 9 |
Medieval figures
- , Norman baron at Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte in Cotentin
- Nigel D'Oyly, Anglo-Norman lord
- Nigel d'Aubigny, Norman nobleman
- Nigel, Bishop of Ely, Anglo-Norman bishop
- Nigel de Longchamps, 12th-century English poet
Notable men named Nigel
- Zimbabwe Nigel Ah Wong, New Zealand rugby player
- Nigel Ayers, English multimedia artist
- Nigel Barker , English fashion photographer
- Nigel Benn, British boxer
- Nigel Bennett, Anglo-Canadian actor, director, and writer
- Nigel Benson, British writer and illustrator
- Nigel Blackwell, English lead singer and guitarist of Half Man Half Biscuit
- Nigel Bond, British snooker player
- Nigel Bruce, British actor
- Nigel Clough, British footballer
- Nigel Cumberland, British author
- Nigel Davenport, English actor
- Nigel Dick, English director, writer, and musician
- Nigel Dodds, British/Northern Irish politician, MP
- Nigel Edwards
- Nigel Evans, British politician
- Nigel Farage, British politician, MEP
- Nigel Glockler, English drummer of the heavy metal band Saxon
- Nigel Godrich, English recording engineer and record producer
- Nigel Green, British actor
- Nigel Gresley, British steam locomotive engineer
- Nigel Harris
- Nigel Havers, English actor
- Nigel Hawthorne, English actor
- Nigel Hayes, American basketball player
- Nigel Haywood, Governor of the Falkland Islands
- Nigel Hess, British composer
- Nigel Horspool, British-born inventor of the Boyer–Moore–Horspool algorithm
- Nigel Holmes, British graphic designer
- Nigel Irens, British yacht designer
- Nigel de Jong, Dutch footballer
- Nigel Keay, New Zealand violist and composer
- Nigel Kennedy, British violinist and violist
- Nigel Kneale, British scriptwriter
- Nigel Latta, New Zealand psychologist
- Nigel Lawson, British politician, Chancellor of the Exchequer
- Nigel Lythgoe, English television, film director and producer
- Nigel Mansell, British racing car driver
- Nigel Martyn, British football goalkeeper
- Nigel Marven, British wildlife television presenter/producer, author, and hobby ornithologist
- Nigel McGuinness, British wrestler
- Nigel Melville, English rugby player, coach, and administrator
- Nigel Miguel, Belizean-American actor, film producer, film commissioner, basketball player
- Nigel Mitchell, British television presenter and radio presenter
- Nigel Morris, British businessman and co-founder of Capital One
- Nigel Northridge, British businessman
- Nigel Oakes, British businessman
- Nigel Olsson, drummer for Elton John, solo recording artist
- Nigel Owens, Welsh rugby referee
- Nigel Pivaro, English actor, he played as Terry Duckworth in Coronation Street
- Nigel Planer, English actor
- Nigel Plum, Australian rugby player
- Nigel Reo-Coker, English footballer
- Nigel Richards, five times World Scrabble Champion
- Nigel Rodgers, British author
- Nigel Roberts, British computer scientist
- Nigel Short, English chess player
- Nigel Slater, English food writer and broadcaster
- Nigel Smart, Australian footballer
- Nigel Stock , English actor who played Dr Watson
- Nigel John Taylor, bass player of Duran Duran
- Nigel Vardy, British mountaineer
- Nigel Warburton, British philosopher
- Nigel Watson, British blues-rock guitarist
- Nigel Williams-Goss, American basketball player
- Nigel Winterburn, English footballer
- Nigel Worthington, Northern Irish footballer and manager
Fictional characters
- Nigel Bathgate, a journalist, in the detective novel, A Man Lay Dead by Dame Ngaio Marsh
- Nigel Bottom, a poet and playwright in Something Rotten!
- Sir Nigel Thornberry, fictional wildlife documentary producer from The Wild Thornberrys
- Nigel Tufnel, lead guitarist for the fictional band Spinal Tap
- Nigel Olifaunt, Lord Glenvarloch, main character of Sir Walter Scott's novel The Fortunes of Nigel
- Sir Nigel, a novel by Arthur Conan Doyle based on the life of Neil Loring
- Nigel Pargetter, a character on the BBC radio soap opera The Archers
- Nigel Baker, a character in Cheaper by the Dozen and its sequel
- Nigel Forrester, a character from Bratz Rock Angelz with whom Cloe falls in love
- Nigel Uno, a fictional character from
- "Making Plans for Nigel", 1979 New Wave hit for English group XTC
- Nigel Powers is a character who appears in the third Austin Powers movie, Austin Powers in Goldmember, as the father of Austin Powers and Dr. Evil
- Principal Nigel Brown, a character on The Amazing World of Gumball
- Nigel Molesworth, schoolboy in 1950s humour books by Geoffrey Willans and Ronald Searle
- Nigel Moon, one of the many brothers of the character Daphne Moon in the TV series Frasier
- Nigel, a brown pelican in Finding Nemo
- Nigel, the gangster ex-husband in Fredrik Bond's Charlie Countryman
- Nigel "Nidge" Delaney, fictional character played by Tom Vaughan-Lawlor in RTE crime drama TV series Love/Hate
- Sir Nigel Irvine, SIS chief in Frederick Forsyth's spy fiction The Fourth Protocol
- Nigel, a sadistic sulphur-crested cockatoo who is the main antagonist in the Rio franchise
- Nigel Burke, the main character in Surgeon Simulator 2013
- Nigel, nickname given by the community to the British pilot model in War Thunder
- Nigel Bumble, a fictional character who join The Rooks in Assassin's Creed Syndicate
- Nigel, an agoraphobic sheep dog in the New Zealand film The Price of Milk
- Nigel, played by Hugh Grant, in the movie Bitter Moon
- Nigel Ratburn, an anthropomorphic rat and elementary school teacher, in the Arthur TV series.
- Nigel Planter, a character from The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy.
- Nigel Wolpert, a Gryffindor wizard from Harry Potter.
Dog
- Nigel, a Golden Retriever dog that belonged to Monty Don, a British television gardening presenter.