Scandinavian short form of Nelson or Niels, from Nicholas meaning victory of the people.
Nels is a crisp Scandinavian diminutive, most directly descended from Niels — the Danish and Norwegian form of Nicholas, which itself derives from the Greek Nikolaos, a compound of *nike* (victory) and *laos* (people), meaning 'victory of the people.' In the Nordic countries, Niels and Nels were workhorse names in the same way that John or William served English speakers: common, trusted, and unadorned. The shortened form Nels carries the same sturdy economy as other Scandinavian clippings — Lars, Sven, Bjorn — that say exactly as much as they need to and no more.
The name arrived in significant numbers to the American Midwest and Great Plains with the waves of Scandinavian immigration in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Settlers from Norway, Sweden, and Denmark who farmed the prairies of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and the Dakotas brought Nels with them as surely as they brought their Lutheran faith and their skill with cold winters. It appears frequently in historical census records from these states, a quiet testament to the immigrant communities that built that region.
The name also surfaces in Western literature and folklore, attached to the kind of laconic, hardworking figure who doesn't waste words any more than he wastes the name itself. Nels has never been fashionable in the way that some Scandinavian names — Soren, Leif, Freya — have become in recent revival cycles, but that very obscurity gives it a certain understated appeal. It wears its heritage without performing it.