Nell — #1455 US girls' name

What the Data Says About Nell

The Social Security Administration has registered 27,483 babies named Nell between 1880 and 2024, spanning 145 consecutive years of U.S. birth records. As a girl's name, Nell currently holds the #1455 rank among girls for 2024. The name reached its historical peak in 1917, when 766 babies received it in a single year.

Decade-level aggregation shows that Nell performed strongest in the 1920s, accumulating 6,034 births during that ten-year window. Across the 15 decades of recorded activity, Nell shows a clear decline from its mid-century high. Geographically, the name is most concentrated in Texas, which accounts for 2,156 births — the largest state-level total in the dataset — followed by Alabama and North Carolina. In total, SSA state-level files list Nell in 36 of the 51 U.S. reporting jurisdictions.

No etymological entry is currently available for Nell in our reference dataset. These figures derive from SSA's annual national and state-level name files, which include any name appearing at least five times in a given year or state-year; names below that threshold are suppressed for privacy and therefore excluded from the totals shown here. The 27,483 total represents a lower bound — actual usage may be higher in years or states where the count fell below the disclosure floor. This page is provided for informational and research purposes only and does not constitute personal, legal, or naming advice.