Nels

Nels is a Scandinavian given name, representing a contracted Danish and Swedish form of Niels, itself the North Germanic development of the medieval Latin Nicolaus, ultimately from the Greek Nikolaos, meaning victory of the people, composed of the elements nikē (victory) and laos (people). The name was carried to North America by Scandinavian immigrants and became moderately familiar in the United States and Canada during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Related forms include Nils, Niels, and the widely used Nicholas.