Nelani
#5,060 in 2025Girls' nameMeaning not yet documented
Nelani has been given to 209 babies in the U.S. since 2009. In 2025 it ranked #5,060 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 2020, with 27 recorded.
Babies named Nelani, 2025
1 in 128,000
Nelani over time, 1880–2025
Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.
How common is Nelani?
Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.
- Among all babies, 2025
- 1 in 128,000
- 26 of 3,315,165 births
- Among girls only
- 1 in 61,800
- <0.01% of girls
- Rank, 2025
- #5,060
- of 17,293 girls’ names in use
- Coin-flip room size
- 88,382 kids
- Even odds of a second one
Where Nelani sits on the popularity scale
Chance at least one other child shares the name
If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.
Put another way: gather 88,382 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Nelani. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.
When Nelanis were born
Half of everyone ever recorded as Nelani was born before 2020 — so the typical Nelani is around 5 today.
- Biggest decade
- 2020s
- 56.9% of all use
- Born in the last 25 years
- 100.0%
- A modern name
- Recorded since 1950
- 209
- People you could plausibly meet
2020s — 56.9% of all recorded uses (119).
Is Nelani rising or falling?
Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.
- Rank vs 1 year ago
- +343
- Places climbed
- Rank vs 5 years ago
- −210
- Places dropped
- Rank vs 10 years ago
- +5,601
- Places climbed
- Births vs 10 years ago
- 2.60×
- More babies than then
- Share of its own peak
- 96.3%
- Peak was 2020 (27)
- Years since peak
- 5
- Years
- Year-to-year steadiness
- Volatile
- 32.5% average annual change
Spellings of Nelani
Nelani is not the most common spelling — Melanie is, with 50.7% against Nelani's 0.04%.
Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.
Nelani by the numbers
The raw record for each sex the name is used for.
Names similar to Nelani
Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.
Sibling names for Nelani
Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.