Nelma — girls' name

What the Data Says About Nelma

The Social Security Administration has registered 1,229 babies named Nelma between 1907 and 1960, spanning 54 consecutive years of U.S. birth records. As a girl's name, Nelma currently falls outside the top 1,000 girls' names for 1960. The name reached its historical peak in 1926, when 50 babies received it in a single year.

Decade-level aggregation shows that Nelma performed strongest in the 1920s, accumulating 415 births during that ten-year window. Across the 7 decades of recorded activity, Nelma shows a clear decline from its mid-century high. Geographically, the name is most concentrated in Texas, which accounts for 127 births — the largest state-level total in the dataset — followed by West Virginia and Alabama. In total, SSA state-level files list Nelma in 12 of the 51 U.S. reporting jurisdictions.

No etymological entry is currently available for Nelma 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 1,229 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.