Nebel
surname · Latin script
Meaning, in English: A Hebrew stringed instrument, possibly the same as the nabla
(measured from records)Officially recorded in 19 countries · latest register: BFS, 2024
/ˈneːbl̩/(recorded in a dictionary) German · from Wiktionary
Nebel is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the United States than in any other country.
- CHSwitzerland1 in 31K(measured from records)
- DKDenmark1 in 35K
- UYUruguay1 in 36K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). Countries with no figure are shown too: flat where a national register lists the name without counting it, hatched where only our records hold it. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- United States (measured from records)
- Record sources
- 255 (measured from records)
- 1 in 31K (inferred from the name graph)
2,272 people, 2010
corpus datasets behind its best-documented spelling
strongest: highest-authority source
Switzerland
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin
(measured from records)A Hebrew stringed instrument, possibly the same as the nabla.
Cited for this meaning 1
- kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Attested across 10 languages in the etymology graph.
How Nebel is read
(measured from records)Nebel is one spelling over 2 language communities, and the dictionaries record it differently in 2 of them. Each row is what a source recorded for that language, beside the share of this name’s records the language holds. No single row is the name’s meaning.
- English61%
A Hebrew stringed instrument, possibly the same as the nabla.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
- German24%
fog, mist, haze
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
from a weather nickname meaning 'fog'
as a nameDeutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung
from OHG Nebul; also forms from Nibel
as a nameDeutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung
The share is ours — how much of this name’s records each language holds. The sense beside it is the source’s, quoted and credited, including where it names a gender. We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.
Where in the world
(measured from records)Nebel counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | 2,272 | 1 in 146K | 2.3K | Nebel | 255 |
| ID Indonesia | ≈810 est. | ≈1 in 328K | — | Nebel | 5 |
| NG Nigeria | ≈290 est. | ≈1 in 735K | — | Nebel | 1 |
| CH Switzerland | 273 | 1 in 31K | 273 | Nebel | 13 |
| GB United Kingdom | ≈230 est. | ≈1 in 287K | 57 | Nebel | 53 |
| DK Denmark | 170 | 1 in 35K | 170 | — | 2 |
| UY Uruguay | 94 | 1 in 36K | 94 | — | — |
| NO Norway | 28 | 1 in 195K | 28 | — | 1 |
2,272 people counted by Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010, 2010. Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010; Surnames of England and Wales (taliesin-arlein.net, Sept 2002 electoral register); BFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames); Danmarks Statistik — Hvor mange hedder...? (living-population name counts); INE Uruguay — Apellidos más frecuentes 1902–2024 (Tableau Public); SSB — Navnesøk (name-search service, living population). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses
(measured from records)Nebel is also recorded in 2 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In goh, fog, mist, cloud
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In Spanish, nabla; nebel
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name
(measured from records)- Ferdinand Nebelb. 1782DEGerman architect
- Carl Nebelb. 1805DEGerman artist (1805-1855)
- Hermann Nebelb. 1816DEGerman architect (1816-1893)
- Otto Nebelb. 1892DEGerman painter (1892-1973)
- Rudolf Nebelb. 1894DEGerman rocket scientist (1894-1978)
- Carmen Nebelb. 1956DEGerman television presenter
- Bernhard Nebelb. 1956DEGerman artificial intelligence researcher
- Wolfgang Nebelb. 1956DEGerman computer scientist
- Moritz Nebelb. 1991DEGerman footballer
- Paul Nebelb. 2002DEGerman association football player
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
How to address them
(machine-generated)Evidence
(measured from records)32 registers and reference works attest this spelling, across 19 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 2.3K | #13,413 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 2K | #13,863 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 1.8K | #15,885 |
| CH Switzerland | BFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames) | 2024 | 273 | #4,784 |
| DK Denmark | Danmarks Statistik — Hvor mange hedder...? (living-population name counts) | — | 170 | #3,073 |
| UY Uruguay | INE Uruguay — Apellidos más frecuentes 1902–2024 (Tableau Public) | — | 94 | — |
| GB United Kingdom | Surnames of England and Wales (taliesin-arlein.net, Sept 2002 electoral register) | 2002 | 57 | #46,925 |
| NO Norway | SSB — Navnesøk (name-search service, living population) | — | 28 | #36,410 |
| US United States | wru Name Dictionary — US surnames, Census 2010 subset (Khanna et al.) | — | — | — |
Reference works 4
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- Rymut, Słownik nazwisk współcześnie w Polsce używanych (10 vols, IJP PAN, Kraków 1992–1994) — every Polish surname in the PESEL register at the end of 1990, with bearer counts nationally and per voivodeship1990
- Søndergaard, Georg, Danske efternavne (Lademann 1984/1991)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- What does the name Nebel mean, and where does it come from?
- A Hebrew stringed instrument, possibly the same as the nabla. Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
- What are other forms of the name Nebel?
- In the etymology graph, Nuel is a form of the same name in other languages.
- How do you pronounce Nebel?
- In German /ˈneːbl̩/ (Wiktionary).
- In which country does Nebel have the most bearers?
- In the United States, the national register counted about 2.3 thousand people named Nebel, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled nebel.
- Where is Nebel most common?
- Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Nebel is densest in Switzerland — about 1 in 31 thousand people — even though United States holds more of our records for it.
- How common is the name Nebel?
- In the United States, the national register counted 2,272 people named Nebel in 2010, about 1 in 146 thousand residents.
What do you want to know about Nebel?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/nebelThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Nebel”. Data snapshot 2026-10-13.