Nelma
Nelma was last recorded in 1960, when 7 babies were given it; 1,229 Americans have been recorded with it between 1907 and 1960 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Nelma by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Nelma?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #5,542, in 1960; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
50 babies in 1926, the peak
Nelma peaked in 1926, when 50 girls were given it, #1,064 among girls’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1960 | 7 | #5,542 | 3.5 |
| 1959 | 8 | #4,912 | 4.0 |
| 1957 | 7 | #5,233 | 3.4 |
| 1955 | 9 | #4,290 | 4.6 |
| 1954 | 11 | #3,645 | 5.7 |
| 1953 | 9 | #4,146 | 4.8 |
| 1952 | 12 | #3,332 | 6.5 |
| 1951 | 13 | #3,063 | 7.2 |
| 1950 | 13 | #3,003 | 7.6 |
| 1949 | 18 | #2,392 | 10.5 |
Every recorded year (51)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1948 | 10 | #3,525 | 5.9 |
| 1947 | 15 | #2,737 | 8.5 |
| 1946 | 26 | #1,798 | 16.5 |
| 1945 | 19 | #1,974 | 14.5 |
| 1944 | 14 | #2,481 | 10.5 |
| 1943 | 11 | #2,985 | 7.9 |
| 1942 | 27 | #1,620 | 20.0 |
| 1941 | 30 | #1,440 | 24.8 |
| 1940 | 25 | #1,577 | 21.9 |
| 1939 | 30 | #1,371 | 27.4 |
| 1938 | 30 | #1,364 | 27.2 |
| 1937 | 30 | #1,348 | 28.2 |
| 1936 | 35 | #1,221 | 33.6 |
| 1935 | 32 | #1,297 | 30.5 |
| 1934 | 37 | #1,183 | 35.4 |
| 1933 | 35 | #1,215 | 34.7 |
| 1932 | 40 | #1,144 | 37.5 |
| 1931 | 30 | #1,367 | 28.2 |
| 1930 | 37 | #1,246 | 32.9 |
| 1929 | 42 | #1,151 | 37.6 |
| 1928 | 43 | #1,174 | 37.3 |
| 1927 | 45 | #1,153 | 37.7 |
| 1926 | 50 | #1,064 | 42.2 |
| 1925 | 45 | #1,156 | 37.0 |
| 1924 | 42 | #1,240 | 33.6 |
| 1923 | 42 | #1,206 | 34.8 |
| 1922 | 42 | #1,203 | 35.0 |
| 1921 | 34 | #1,399 | 27.6 |
| 1920 | 30 | #1,502 | 25.0 |
| 1919 | 36 | #1,290 | 31.9 |
| 1918 | 29 | #1,488 | 25.1 |
| 1917 | 23 | #1,638 | 21.3 |
| 1916 | 22 | #1,669 | 21.1 |
| 1915 | 17 | #1,937 | 17.3 |
| 1914 | 21 | #1,422 | 27.6 |
| 1913 | 13 | #1,736 | 20.8 |
| 1912 | 10 | #1,943 | 17.9 |
| 1911 | 5 | #2,757 | 12.0 |
| 1910 | 8 | #1,890 | 20.2 |
| 1909 | 5 | #2,450 | 14.4 |
| 1907 | 5 | #2,288 | 15.7 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Nelma a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Nelma has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 51 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Nelma: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Nelma, and how old are they?
An estimated 256 Americans named Nelma and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (21% of everyone recorded); the median is 82 years old and half are between 76 and 88. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 534 people named Nelma (527 women and girls, 7 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 396 born in the U.S. The Census count is 35% 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 Nelma born?
The states with the most babies named Nelma are Texas, West Virginia and Alabama, with 72% of its births recorded by state since 1910; West Virginia and Alabama are not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 127 | not ranked | 1.9× |
| West Virginia | 16 | not ranked | 0.7× |
| Alabama | 13 | not ranked | 0.4× |
| Arkansas | 11 | not ranked | 0.5× |
| Kentucky | 10 | not ranked | 0.3× |
| Tennessee | 10 | not ranked | 0.3× |
| Louisiana | 6 | not ranked | 0.2× |
| Georgia | 5 | not ranked | 0.1× |
| Missouri | 5 | not ranked | 0.1× |
| North Carolina | 5 | not ranked | 0.1× |
Where Nelma is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Nelma is most over-represented in Texas: since 1910 it was given 1.9 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 Nelma with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Nelma
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 Nelma and names like it
- Compare Nelma and EtheleneBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1920sNelma peaked in 1926.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Nelma since 1910.
- The top names of 1926The year the most babies were named Nelma.
- The names of the Silent GenerationMost people named Nelma alive today were born 1928-1945.
- Names starting with NMost given first.