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Shem Tov · Hebrew names

Boy's nameOrigin: biblicalIn Israel: steady

NatanIn Hebrew: נתן · meaning, pronunciation and popularity in Israel

With vowel points: נָתָןRomanization: natán

Natan (Hebrew: נתן) is a boy's name of biblical origin. 15,643 people born in Israel between 1949 and 2024 have it today, according to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). In 2024 it was given to 361 boys and ranked #53. Its peak year was 2019, with 428 babies.

People in Israel
15,643
born 1949–2024
Babies in 2024
361
rank #53
Peak year
2019
428 babies
USA, 2025
61
rank #2,284

Writing and saying Natan

In Hebrew letters the name is נתן, read right to left. Natan is the Latin spelling recorded by our review; families choose their own spelling in passports, so you may also meet other forms. Wiktionary romanizes it as "natán" (the accent marks the stressed syllable).

Meaning and origin

  • Nathan (an Old Testament prophet who advised King David)
  • a male given name, equivalent to English Nathan or Natan
Compare Classical Syriac ܢܬܢ (nəṯan, “to give”) and Akkadian 𒈾𒁕𒉡𒌝 (nadānum, “to give”). Possibly cognate with Arabic نَتَنَ (natana, “to give off a foul smell, to stink”), which may have undergone semantic narrowing.

Quoted from English Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0), unchanged.

Natan by year: Israel and abroad

How many boys out of every 10,000 born each year have the name. For Israel it counts the people born that year who carry the name today (the CBS counts residents by year of birth, not birth registrations).

Natan: rate per 10,000, 1950–2025

per 10,000 babies of the same sex

Natan in English-speaking countries

Natan in each official list: latest year, count, rank and peak
Country / regionYearBabiesRankPeak
United States202561#2,2842017 (65)
United Kingdom202543#8362015 (175)
England and Wales202543#7732015 (160)
Alberta202516#2962025 (16)

Counts for boys. The Hebrew page for Natan has every year and the other spellings.

Related Israeli names

Spelling variants and names that look or sound close in Hebrew.

Questions about Natan

How do you write Natan in Hebrew?

Natan is written נתן in Hebrew (with vowel points: נָתָן). Hebrew is read right to left. A dictionary romanization is "natán".

How many people in Israel are named Natan?

15,643 people born between 1949 and 2024 carry the name נתן: 10 women and 15,633 men. The count comes from the CBS table of current first names by year of birth; years with fewer than 5 people are not published.

Is Natan a boy's or a girl's name?

In Israel it is almost always a boy's name: 99.9% of the people named נתן are men.

What does the name Natan mean?

English Wiktionary describes it as: "Nathan (an Old Testament prophet who advised King David)" Etymology: Compare Classical Syriac ܢܬܢ (nəṯan, “to give”) and Akkadian 𒈾𒁕𒉡𒌝 (nadānum, “to give”). Possibly cognate with Arabic نَتَنَ (natana, “to give off a foul smell, to stink”), which may have undergone semantic narrowing.

Is Natan used outside Israel?

The name Natan appears in the official baby name lists of English-speaking countries. In the United States 61 boys were given it in 2025 (#2,284), per the Social Security Administration. In the UK 43 in 2025 (ONS, NRS and NISRA combined).

Sources

Israel: Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), current first names of people born 1949–2024 by sex, population group and year of birth, processed 2026-09-27. CBS publications.

Abroad

Counts are copied as published. We only merged accented spellings (Zoë = Zoe) and computed ranks and rates. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – British Columbia and the Open Government Licence – Alberta.