A surname of Scandinavian origin, particularly famous from the Nielsen TV ratings that measure how many people watch television shows.
From Scandinavian 'Niels' (meaning 'victory of the people,' from 'Nikolaus'), with '-en' as a possessive suffix meaning 'son of.' The modern meaning comes from A.C. Nielsen's company that started measuring TV audiences.
A.C. Nielsen invented TV ratings in the 1950s using a machine called the 'Nielsen box' that tracked what families watched—the show 'M*A*S*H' had one of the highest Nielsen ratings in history with over 105 million viewers for its finale, still a record for a TV series.
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