Nelle
Nelle was given to 33 girls in 2025, #4,324 among girls’ names; 5,794 Americans have been recorded with it since 1880 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Nelle by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Nelle mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Nelle is “a female given name.”
From Ellen spelled backwards. Popularized by author Harper Lee, whose first name Nelle was so derived from her grandmother’s.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Nelle?
#4,324 among girls’ names, 2025
Nelle rose from #6,908 in 2015 to #4,324 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 10.1 to 20.5 per million.
169 babies in 1917, the peak
Nelle peaked in 1917, when 169 girls were given it, #510 among girls’ names. The 33 births of 2025 are 20% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 33 | #4,324 | 0.02 |
| 2024 | 26 | #5,102 | 0.02 |
| 2023 | 34 | #4,255 | 0.02 |
| 2022 | 26 | #5,127 | 0.02 |
| 2021 | 29 | #4,699 | 0.02 |
| 2020 | 37 | #3,891 | 0.02 |
| 2019 | 32 | #4,415 | 0.02 |
| 2018 | 28 | #4,855 | 0.02 |
| 2017 | 15 | #7,734 | 0.01 |
| 2016 | 17 | #7,139 | 0.01 |
Every recorded year (115)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 18 | #6,908 | 0.01 |
| 2014 | 10 | #10,718 | 0.01 |
| 2013 | 7 | #14,204 | under 0.01 |
| 2012 | 12 | #9,549 | 0.01 |
| 2011 | 5 | #18,778 | under 0.01 |
| 2010 | 7 | #14,542 | under 0.01 |
| 2009 | 7 | #14,786 | under 0.01 |
| 2008 | 7 | #14,948 | under 0.01 |
| 2006 | 8 | #13,273 | under 0.01 |
| 2005 | 6 | #15,876 | under 0.01 |
| 2001 | 7 | #13,073 | under 0.01 |
| 1986 | 7 | #9,249 | under 0.01 |
| 1985 | 5 | #11,897 | under 0.01 |
| 1982 | 5 | #11,712 | under 0.01 |
| 1980 | 5 | #11,586 | under 0.01 |
| 1976 | 5 | #10,361 | under 0.01 |
| 1975 | 6 | #8,696 | under 0.01 |
| 1972 | 6 | #7,930 | under 0.01 |
| 1968 | 10 | #4,687 | 0.01 |
| 1965 | 5 | #7,218 | under 0.01 |
| 1964 | 5 | #7,474 | under 0.01 |
| 1963 | 5 | #7,320 | under 0.01 |
| 1962 | 7 | #5,688 | under 0.01 |
| 1961 | 8 | #5,166 | under 0.01 |
| 1960 | 7 | #5,541 | under 0.01 |
| 1959 | 6 | #6,033 | under 0.01 |
| 1958 | 6 | #5,908 | under 0.01 |
| 1957 | 9 | #4,454 | under 0.01 |
| 1956 | 5 | #6,614 | under 0.01 |
| 1955 | 11 | #3,721 | 0.01 |
| 1954 | 13 | #3,276 | 0.01 |
| 1953 | 13 | #3,225 | 0.01 |
| 1952 | 11 | #3,495 | 0.01 |
| 1951 | 9 | #3,915 | under 0.01 |
| 1950 | 8 | #4,217 | under 0.01 |
| 1949 | 11 | #3,332 | 0.01 |
| 1948 | 10 | #3,524 | 0.01 |
| 1947 | 11 | #3,384 | 0.01 |
| 1946 | 16 | #2,456 | 0.01 |
| 1945 | 17 | #2,128 | 0.01 |
| 1944 | 14 | #2,480 | 0.01 |
| 1943 | 18 | #2,128 | 0.01 |
| 1942 | 19 | #2,019 | 0.01 |
| 1941 | 11 | #2,793 | 0.01 |
| 1940 | 13 | #2,383 | 0.01 |
| 1939 | 26 | #1,505 | 0.02 |
| 1938 | 20 | #1,793 | 0.02 |
| 1937 | 20 | #1,770 | 0.02 |
| 1936 | 28 | #1,405 | 0.03 |
| 1935 | 22 | #1,644 | 0.02 |
| 1934 | 26 | #1,471 | 0.02 |
| 1933 | 27 | #1,436 | 0.03 |
| 1932 | 35 | #1,231 | 0.03 |
| 1931 | 33 | #1,274 | 0.03 |
| 1930 | 45 | #1,113 | 0.04 |
| 1929 | 46 | #1,090 | 0.04 |
| 1928 | 42 | #1,185 | 0.04 |
| 1927 | 66 | #920 | 0.06 |
| 1926 | 68 | #907 | 0.06 |
| 1925 | 84 | #813 | 0.07 |
| 1924 | 99 | #746 | 0.08 |
| 1923 | 106 | #712 | 0.09 |
| 1922 | 94 | #758 | 0.08 |
| 1921 | 135 | #639 | 0.11 |
| 1920 | 128 | #639 | 0.11 |
| 1919 | 125 | #629 | 0.11 |
| 1918 | 152 | #582 | 0.13 |
| 1917 | 169 | #510 | 0.16 |
| 1916 | 141 | #565 | 0.14 |
| 1915 | 139 | #539 | 0.14 |
| 1914 | 127 | #495 | 0.17 |
| 1913 | 105 | #499 | 0.17 |
| 1912 | 100 | #478 | 0.18 |
| 1911 | 78 | #465 | 0.19 |
| 1910 | 65 | #508 | 0.16 |
| 1909 | 75 | #428 | 0.22 |
| 1908 | 52 | #505 | 0.16 |
| 1907 | 72 | #421 | 0.23 |
| 1906 | 82 | #381 | 0.28 |
| 1905 | 85 | #370 | 0.29 |
| 1904 | 66 | #402 | 0.24 |
| 1903 | 53 | #441 | 0.20 |
| 1902 | 82 | #352 | 0.31 |
| 1901 | 77 | #348 | 0.32 |
| 1900 | 91 | #355 | 0.30 |
| 1899 | 87 | #323 | 0.37 |
| 1898 | 109 | #297 | 0.42 |
| 1897 | 97 | #294 | 0.41 |
| 1896 | 89 | #309 | 0.37 |
| 1895 | 112 | #264 | 0.48 |
| 1894 | 113 | #257 | 0.51 |
| 1893 | 120 | #240 | 0.56 |
| 1892 | 133 | #225 | 0.63 |
| 1891 | 122 | #218 | 0.66 |
| 1890 | 143 | #198 | 0.75 |
| 1889 | 119 | #212 | 0.67 |
| 1888 | 105 | #226 | 0.59 |
| 1887 | 100 | #203 | 0.69 |
| 1886 | 98 | #200 | 0.68 |
| 1885 | 109 | #175 | 0.82 |
| 1884 | 92 | #194 | 0.71 |
| 1883 | 76 | #198 | 0.68 |
| 1882 | 59 | #225 | 0.55 |
| 1881 | 72 | #178 | 0.78 |
| 1880 | 65 | #189 | 0.71 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Nelle a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Nelle has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 115 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Nelle: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Nelle, and how old are they?
An estimated 665 Americans named Nelle and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (12% of everyone recorded); the median is 16 years old and half are between 6 and 74. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 790 people named Nelle (783 women and girls, 7 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 640 born in the U.S. The Census count is 23% above that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Nelle born?
The states with the most babies named Nelle are Tennessee, Georgia and North Carolina, with 52% of its births recorded by state since 1910; Tennessee is not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tennessee | 356 | not ranked | 4.5× |
| Georgia | 260 | not ranked | 2.5× |
| North Carolina | 120 | not ranked | 1.1× |
| South Carolina | 117 | not ranked | 1.8× |
| Pennsylvania | 88 | not ranked | 0.4× |
| Kentucky | 79 | not ranked | 1.0× |
| Texas | 74 | not ranked | 0.4× |
| Alabama | 67 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| West Virginia | 44 | not ranked | 0.9× |
| Ohio | 43 | not ranked | 0.3× |
Where Nelle is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Nelle is most over-represented in Tennessee: since 1910 it was given 4.5 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Nelle with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 178,312 babies since 1880, Nelle is the third most given (3.2% of them). In 2025 it was given to 33 of their 972 babies (3.4%), the seventh most given that year.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Nelle
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Nelle and names like it
- Compare Nelle and NellieBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1910sNelle peaked in 1917.
- Tennessee’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Nelle since 1910.
- The top names of 1917The year the most babies were named Nelle.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Nelle alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with NMost given first.