Nigel is a Prénom.

Etymology

The Nigel first name comes mainly from the Gaélique (Irish) “niadh”, champion, hero, warrior or of “nél”, cloud, to bring closer to Germanic “the nebel”, fog. The Nigel form is perhaps influenced by Latin “Niger”, noir.
The forms the Nile and Niels are generally the Scandinavian diminutives of Nicolas and/or Daniel.
Nelli or Nelly, is derived from Helene.
To note the Nelson form, of old English “Neil-sound”, wire of Neil.

Derived and alternatives

Neal, Neale (F), Neals, Nealson, Neel, Neil (M/F), Neill (F), Nel, Nele, Nèle (F), Nels, Nelsinho, Niall, Niallán, Niel, Nield, Nigelle (F), Njal, Nolan, Nygel and Nygell…

Religious history

No the festival in this form but under that of Nelson the February 3rd.
Born in 1534 in the county from York, holy Nelson is ordered priest in 1576 with Douai in Flanders. Returned to England to exert its ministry there, it is stopped and refusing to abjure its Catholicism for the Anglicanism, decapitated on February 3rd 1578.
It should be noted that the Nile celebrated on September 26th of Greek origin, is carried by a young Greek of Italy, abbot of a monastic community.

Homonyms

• Niall with the Last nine Hostages, high-king legendary (379-405) of Tared. He is the ancestor of the dynasty of O' Neill and last pagan king of Ireland because holy Patrick having converted his son Laoghaire who succeeded then to him…

• Robert Nelson (1656-1714), writer and philanthropist English, very religious,
• Daniel Neal (1678-1743), dissenting Pasteur and English historian,
• John Neal (1794 -?), writer and American poet,
• Guillaume Neil (), English mathematician of the 18th century,
• the admiral Horatio Nelson (1794-1805), English national hero, victorious death in Trafalgar.
• the General Neill (1812-57), bloody repressor of the revolt of Cipayes in the Indies,
• Alexander Sutherland Neill (1883-1973), British pedagog, author of the “Free children of Sommerhill” (1960),
• Nelson Mandela (born in 1918), South-African politician , famous adversary of apartheid, Nobel Prize of Peace (1993) with Frederic Declerq, then elected President (1994),
• Nelson Stake, Brazilian former world champion of Formula 1.

Literature

• “Sir Nigel”, novel to sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

• Nigel Olifaunt, hero of the novel “Fortunes of Nigel” (1822) of Walter Scott.
• Neil Duncan, central figure of “Catriona” (1893) of Robert Louis Stevenson.

Toponymy

• the Canadian river Nelson, resulting from the lake Winnipeg which is thrown in the Hudson Bay.

Others

• the nelsonie, kind of plant (acanthacées) of Asia and Australia,

• Nigellastre, kind of garidelle,
• Nigelle kind of plant (renonculacées) of the Mediterranean.

Random links:

Astros | Warzone (set of figurines) | Policy of Kyrgyzstan | Lunar eclipse of March 3rd, 2007 | Tetrachlorethane (occupational disease)