Talk:Nigel

uncommon? What planet does the author live on.

In the USA, yes uncommon. So much so that pronunciation of the name is butchered more often than not.--ukexpat 02:45, 18 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I think he lives on the planet Earth - it is an incredibly obscure name in the U.S. and yes as strange as it may seem, the vast majority of English speakers on Earth are in the U.S. so that's where it really counts. Sorry, I know this is hard for U.K. English speakers to comprehend apparently. The name is not "butchered" it is just so rare that no one really cares. You might as well be called "Moon Unit." Now back to basics, this article states "with its highest ranking on the Social Security Administration's list." Uh, what is this supposed to mean? This statement is incomplete. On the Social Security name list, Nigel is currently around the 900th most common name in the most populous English speaking country - so yes, very obscure indeed. Jmdeur (talk) 13:06, 8 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Someone has been seriously messing with this page - I have changed a couple of obvious things

Obvious, I don't think it is.

The etymological explanation is not relevant. Nigel is a British name, but its origin is Norman

1) the oldest people recorded as Nigel are from Normandy.
2) Nigellus is not a Folk etymology, totally wrong. It 's a clerk's etymology, made by people from the church who knew latin very well. This etymology could not have been made in England, impossible, but in France.

For a simple fact, in English there is no weakening of the consonant inbetween two vowels. Neil could not have been interpreted by English speaking monks as something similar to nigellus, it does not make sense. What is the connection in English between Neil and nigellus, that derives from 'black' in Latin if you are an English speaker?

But in French there is one, because the latin word niger, black gave neir, noir, black and nigella gave neele, nielle (grain sickness) and nigellus gave neel, neiel (black enamel) the disapearing of the inter-vowels consonants of latin is something typical of the French language .

That's a wrong interpretation of the Norman first name Néel (written also Neel) by French speaking monks, that turned it into Nigellus, because they believed it was the same as the two words neele (Modern French nielle) and neel (modern French nielle), but in fact that's a Old Norse first name Njall, that evoluted to Néel in Norman French. Later the name Néel could have been assimilated to Neil in Great-Britain, so to Nigellus, Nigel.

The word niello exists in English but it was borrowed from Italian 19th century, that was itself borrowed from French.

Sincerely yours Nortmannus (talk) 06:32, 7 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Norman place names: Néville-sur-Mer, recorded as Neevilla 12th century; Nigevilla 12th. Néville, Nevilla 1032 - 1035. R. Neel is the Lord of it around 1210. Néhou, latinized in Nigellihulmus, 12th century, Neahou 12th century, Nigelli Humo 1159 - 1181 —Preceding unsigned comment added by Nortmannus (talk • contribs) 06:55, 7 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

in the English-speaking Caribbean

The name Nigel is sometimes used in former British colonies in the Caribbean, although it may have become less popular at the same time (or a little later) than in the United Kingdom. See this search and this one. If Jamaica or Trinidad publish yearly baby name lists that say how common the name is for the current year's babies, those figures would be worth mentioning in the article. Hong Kong would also be worth investigating. Eastmain (talk • contribs) 19:39, 29 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]