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Nelli

#5,189 in 2025Girls' name

Diminutive of Cornelia

Nelli has been given to 385 babies in the U.S. since 1977. In 2025 it ranked #5,189 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 2021, with 25 recorded.

Babies named Nelli, 2025

1 in 133,000

Nelli over time, 1880–2025

Girls
010203018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Nelli: meaning, origin, and history

Diminutive of Cornelia

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Nelli means

Nelli is a diminutive of Cornelia.

Origin, language, and formation

Nelli is used in Estonian and Finnish.

Nelli comes through German Cornelia.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Cornelia.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Finnish, Nelli is pronounced /ˈnelːi/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 385 girls were recorded with the name Nelli between 1977 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 25 in 2021; its best national rank was #5,189 in 2025.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #6,256 in 2020 to #5,189 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #11,586 in 2015 to #5,189 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Nelli?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 133,000
25 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 64,300
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#5,189
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
91,917 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Nelli 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 91,917 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Nelli. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Nellis were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Nelli was born before 2014 — so the typical Nelli is around 11 today.

Median birth year
2014
About 11 years old
Biggest decade
2020s
33.0% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
91.7%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
385
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2020s — 33.0% of all recorded uses (127).

Is Nelli 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
+1,144
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
+1,067
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
+6,397
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
2.78×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
100.0%
Peak was 2021 (25)
Years since peak
4
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
28.9% average annual change
Best rank ever
#5,189
2025

Spellings of Nelli

Nelli is not the most common spelling — Kelly is, with 28.7% against Nelli's 0.02%.

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 Nelli is used

Across 1910–2025, Nelli was most concentrated in California — about 1 in — girls, against 1 in 571,885 across all states with data.

00 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in —

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. Nelli has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Nelli around the world

Where Nelli 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
    2011–2025
    #4,867
    in 2025
  • France
    1913–2015
    #6,865
    in 2015
  • South Australia
    1990–1990
    #691
    in 1990

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Nelli by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#5,189
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 1,067
Best rank ever
#5,189
2025
Peak year
2021
25 that year
First recorded
1977
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
385
Count in 2025
25

Names similar to Nelli

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

NelsyNeliNelaNelyNelaniNeliaMilliNeltaNelyaValliNelsonNyelliNelvaNelehNellielNelmaNellaHalliNelwynNelMalliNelleAngelliMolli

Sibling names for Nelli

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 Nelli

Top names of 2021, Nelli's peak yearThe 2020s in fullOther names that peaked in 2025Girls' names starting with N