Word.ws English Dictionary

Nathaniel

/nəˈθæn.jəl/

Nathaniel proper noun: a male given name from Hebrew.

Proper noun

Nathaniel

  1. A male given name from Hebrew.
    • Nathaniel's coat, sir, was not fully made,
      And Gabriel's pumps were all unpink'd i' the heel.c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
    • ‘What’s your Christian name, Sir?’ angrily inquired the little judge. ‘Nathaniel, Sir.’ ‘Daniel—any other name?’ ‘Nathaniel, sir—my Lord, I mean.’ ‘Nathaniel Daniel, or Daniel Nathaniel?’ ‘No, my Lord, only Nathaniel —not Daniel at all.’ ‘What did you tell me it was Daniel for, then, sir?’ inquired...1836 March – 1837 October, Charles Dickens, chapter 34, in The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1837, →OCLC

Origin of Nathaniel

Modification, under influence of Daniel, of Nathanael, from Ancient Greek Ναθαναήλ (Nathanaḗl), from Biblical Hebrew נְתַנְאֵל (Netan'el, literally “God has given”).

Questions about Nathaniel

What does Nathaniel mean?
Nathaniel means a male given name from Hebrew.
What part of speech is Nathaniel?
Nathaniel is a proper noun.
How do you pronounce Nathaniel?
Nathaniel is pronounced /nəˈθæn.jəl/.

Words near Nathaniel in the dictionary

  1. Nathalia
  2. Nathalie
  3. Nathaly
  4. Nathan
  5. Nathanael
  6. Nathaniel
  7. Nathanielsen
  8. Nathans
  9. Nathanson
  10. Nathansons
  11. nathaswaram

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Nathaniel (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-ca-Nathaniel.oga.

Cite this entry: “Nathaniel.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/nathaniel. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.