Nil

Nil traces back to the Greek Neilos, the classical name of the Nile. The river named the word, and the word became a name. Its meaning stays plain: river.

In Catalonia, Nil belongs to boys, and it has ranked among the most popular boys' names there in recent years. In Turkey the same four letters name girls, and Nil is read as the great river itself. One small name reaches two coasts.

The Polish meaning is rzeka, river. On a school register in Poland, Nil would sit short beside longer names, four letters against a column of them.

The name has no diminutive and no common variant. It does not shorten. A boy named Nil in Barcelona and a girl named Nil in Izmir share one origin, the Greek word for the Nile.