Nilles
surname · Latin script
Meaning: 522 Träger; Patronym aus Kurzform von Cornelius, mit Wegfall der ersten Silbe und Assimilation e > i
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/ˈnaɪɫz/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Nilles is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the United States than in any other country.
- USUnited States1 in 196K(measured from records)
- LULuxembourg≈1 in 2.9K
- DEGermany≈1 in 84K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- United States (measured from records)
- Sources
- 214 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 2.9K (inferred from the name graph)
1,697 people, 2010
Highest-authority source
Luxembourg, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
522 Träger; Patronym aus Kurzform von Cornelius, mit Wegfall der ersten Silbe und Assimilation e > i.
Sources 1
- Deutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 6: Familiennamen aus Rufnamen
Where in the world(measured from records)
Nilles 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 | 1,697 | 1 in 196K | 1.7K | Nilles | 214 |
| PK Pakistan | ≈1,400 est. | ≈1 in 161K | — | Nilles | 1 |
| DE Germany | ≈960 est. | ≈1 in 84K | listed | — | — |
| PH Philippines | ≈820 est. | ≈1 in 133K | — | Nilles | 13 |
| FR France | ≈240 est. | ≈1 in 288K | 30 | — | 1 |
| LU Luxembourg | ≈220 est. | ≈1 in 2.9K | 711 | — | 11 |
1,697 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; Luxembourg top-100 surnames (surnam.es); INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000); the dfa-band-6 register. 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)
Nilles is also recorded in 3 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In German, zu Rufname Nils/Nikolaus, patronymische Bildung
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 6: Familiennamen aus Rufnamen
patronymic from Nill 1.
as a nameDictionary of American Family Names
In Luxembourgish, sack, glass, container
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)
- Nikolaus Nillesb. 1828LULuxembourgian Catholic priest, Jesuit, liturgist, jurist and writer (1828–1907)
- Pierre Nillesb. 1923LU(1923-2000)
- Léon Nillesb. 1928LU(1928-2016)
- Hans Peter Nillesb. 1950DEphysicist
- Claude Nillesb. 1951LULuxembourgish association football player
- Patrick Nillesb. 1968LULuxembourgian handball player
- Anika Nillesb. 1983DEGerman drummer
- Stephanie Nillesb. 1985USAmerican singer
- Kim Nillesb. 1999LULuxembourgish association football player
- Rüdiger NillesDEGerman politician
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)
Attested in 23 sources across 14 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 1.7K | #16,824 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 1.3K | #20,326 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 1.3K | #19,048 |
| LU Luxembourg | Luxembourg top-100 surnames (surnam.es) | — | 711 | #65 |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1951 | 43 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1921 | 41 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1901 | 41 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1931 | 37 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1981 | 33 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1971 | 32 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1941 | 32 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1911 | 32 | — |
Reference works 4
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- 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
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
- How do you pronounce Nilles?
- A machine transcription gives /ˈnaɪɫz/ (IPA) for English.
- What does the name Nilles mean?
- Recorded meaning: 522 Träger; Patronym aus Kurzform von Cornelius, mit Wegfall der ersten Silbe und Assimilation e > i.
- In which country does Nilles have the most bearers?
- In the United States, the national register counted about 1.7 thousand people named Nilles, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled nilles.
- How common is the name Nilles?
- In the United States, the national register counted 1,697 people named Nilles in 2010, about 1 in 196 thousand residents.
What do you want to know about Nilles?
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/nillesThe 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, “Nilles”. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.