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Nelle

#4,324 in 2025Girls' name

Variant of Nell

Nelle has been given to 5,794 babies in the U.S. since 1880. In 2025 it ranked #4,324 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 1917, with 169 recorded.

Babies named Nelle, 2025

1 in 100,000

Nelle over time, 1880–2025

Girls
05010015020018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Nelle: meaning, origin, and history

Variant of Nell

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Nelle means

Nelle is a variant of Nell.

Dictionary etymologyReferences, data & attribution

From Ellen spelled backwards. Popularized by author Harper Lee, whose first name Nelle was so derived from her grandmother’s.

Excerpt from Wiktionary: Nelle (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Origin, language, and formation

Nelle is used in English.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Nell.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 5,794 girls were recorded with the name Nelle between 1880 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 169 in 1917; its best national rank was #175 in 1885.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #3,891 in 2020 to #4,324 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #6,908 in 2015 to #4,324 in 2025.

How common is Nelle?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 100,000
33 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 48,700
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#4,324
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
69,634 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Nelle sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

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.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 69,634 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Nelle. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Nelles were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Nelle was born before 1911 — so the typical Nelle is around 114 today.

Median birth year
1911
About 114 years old
Biggest decade
1910s
20.7% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
6.4%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
548
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1910s — 20.7% of all recorded uses (1,201).

Is Nelle 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
+778
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
−433
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
+2,584
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
1.83×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
19.5%
Peak was 1917 (169)
Years since peak
108
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
34.1% average annual change
Best rank ever
#175
1885

Spellings of Nelle

Nelle is not the most common spelling — Kelly is, with 23.0% against Nelle's 0.28%.

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.

Where Nelle is used

Across 1910–2025, Nelle was most concentrated in Tennessee — about 1 in 10,000 girls, against 1 in 75,588 across all states with data. It was least common in Virginia (1 in —).

010 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Tennessee1 in 10,000
  2. 2Georgia1 in 16,667
  3. 3South Carolina1 in 20,000
  4. 4Kentucky1 in 33,333
  5. 5North Carolina1 in 33,333
  6. 6West Virginia1 in 33,333
  7. 7Alabama1 in 50,000
  8. 8Arkansas1 in 100,000

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Nelle has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Nelle around the world

Where Nelle ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    2001–2025
    #1,639
    in 2025
  • France
    1976–2025
    #4,822
    in 2025
  • Canada
    2023–2023
    #2,973
    in 2023

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques and Statistics Canada. ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Notable people named Nelle

People whose public names include Nelle, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Nelle in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Nelle. Linked forms have their own page here.

ElleNellNellaNelliNellyNellieNele

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Nelle by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#4,324
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 433
Best rank ever
#175
1885
Peak year
1917
169 that year
First recorded
1880
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
5,794
Count in 2025
33

Names similar to Nelle

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

NellaNellyNeldaNeliaAdelleHalleNellBelleNelliKamilleNicolleNelmaMozelleNelvaJenelleNelyNelaJoelleNelsyElleJonelleNelidaJazelleGizelle

Names with a curve like Nelle

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Nelle, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

MathildaHuldaMaymeMyrtieHettiePearleBessMetaAugustaMabelleMittieZula

Sibling names for Nelle

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Nelle

Top names of 1917, Nelle's peak yearThe 1910s in fullOther names that peaked in 1885More old lady namesGirls' names starting with N