Meaning: Its source is Netanyahu, a Hebrew name meaning "God has given."

Languages: This boy's name is used in English and Polish.

Nicknames: Nate, Nathan, Thaniel and Nat

Alternative Spellings: Nathanial and Nathanyel

Variant Forms: Nathanael, Nathaneal and Nethaneel

Non-English Forms: Natanael and Nataniel

Source Forms: Netanyahu

Popularity: The name Nathaniel ranked 63rd in popularity for males of all ages in a sample of 2000-2003 Social Security Administration statistics and 206th in popularity for males of all ages in a sample of the 1990 US Census.

This name was popular earlier in the 20th century, then fell off in usage, but has begun making a comeback in recent years.

Narrative: In Christian scripture, this was the name of one of Christ's disciples. It is believed that he was most commonly indentified by the surname Bartholomew, an Aramic-derived patronymic meaning ''son of Talmai.''