Nelle — #5005 US girls' name

What the Data Says About Nelle

The Social Security Administration has registered 5,761 babies named Nelle between 1880 and 2024, spanning 145 consecutive years of U.S. birth records. As a girl's name, Nelle currently holds the #5005 rank among girls for 2024. The name reached its historical peak in 1917, when 169 babies received it in a single year.

Decade-level aggregation shows that Nelle performed strongest in the 1910s, accumulating 1,201 births during that ten-year window. Across the 14 decades of recorded activity, Nelle shows a clear decline from its mid-century high. Geographically, the name is most concentrated in Tennessee, which accounts for 356 births — the largest state-level total in the dataset — followed by Georgia and North Carolina. In total, SSA state-level files list Nelle in 20 of the 51 U.S. reporting jurisdictions.

No etymological entry is currently available for Nelle 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 5,761 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.