Nely
Nely was given to 6 girls in 2025, #14,434 among girls’ names; 603 Americans have been recorded with it since 1973 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Nely by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Nely?
#14,434 among girls’ names, 2025
Nely rose from #15,875 in 2015 to #14,434 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 3.4 to 3.7 per million.
31 babies in 1992, the peak
Nely peaked in 1992, when 31 girls were given it, #3,551 among girls’ names. The 6 births of 2025 are 19% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 6 | #14,434 | 3.7 |
| 2024 | 6 | #14,783 | 3.7 |
| 2023 | 7 | #13,074 | 4.4 |
| 2022 | 9 | #10,980 | 5.5 |
| 2020 | 7 | #13,091 | 4.3 |
| 2019 | 5 | #17,296 | 3.0 |
| 2017 | 5 | #17,705 | 2.9 |
| 2016 | 11 | #9,907 | 6.2 |
| 2015 | 6 | #15,875 | 3.4 |
| 2014 | 6 | #15,983 | 3.4 |
Every recorded year (44)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 15 | #8,102 | 8.5 |
| 2011 | 10 | #10,959 | 5.7 |
| 2010 | 10 | #11,019 | 5.6 |
| 2009 | 17 | #7,592 | 9.3 |
| 2008 | 20 | #6,741 | 10.6 |
| 2007 | 25 | #5,648 | 13.0 |
| 2006 | 18 | #7,066 | 9.5 |
| 2005 | 19 | #6,467 | 10.3 |
| 2004 | 21 | #5,906 | 11.4 |
| 2003 | 26 | #4,900 | 14.2 |
| 2002 | 22 | #5,400 | 12.2 |
| 2001 | 30 | #4,169 | 16.7 |
| 2000 | 8 | #11,488 | 4.4 |
| 1999 | 28 | #4,167 | 15.8 |
| 1998 | 20 | #5,294 | 11.3 |
| 1997 | 20 | #5,157 | 11.5 |
| 1996 | 22 | #4,693 | 12.5 |
| 1995 | 13 | #6,914 | 7.4 |
| 1994 | 18 | #5,388 | 10.1 |
| 1993 | 14 | #6,504 | 7.7 |
| 1992 | 31 | #3,551 | 16.8 |
| 1991 | 16 | #5,850 | 8.5 |
| 1990 | 14 | #6,356 | 7.4 |
| 1989 | 13 | #6,416 | 7.1 |
| 1988 | 11 | #6,972 | 6.2 |
| 1987 | 14 | #5,513 | 8.1 |
| 1986 | 6 | #10,462 | 3.5 |
| 1985 | 9 | #7,367 | 5.2 |
| 1983 | 10 | #6,555 | 6.0 |
| 1982 | 7 | #8,890 | 4.1 |
| 1981 | 8 | #7,893 | 4.8 |
| 1980 | 6 | #9,950 | 3.6 |
| 1979 | 9 | #7,117 | 5.6 |
| 1973 | 5 | #9,329 | 3.4 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Nely a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Nely has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 44 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Nely: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Nely, and how old are they?
An estimated 593 Americans named Nely and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 25 years old and half are between 19 and 34. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 2,162 people named Nely (2,143 women and girls, 19 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 562 born in the U.S. The Census count is 3.8 times 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 Nely born?
The states with the most babies named Nely are California, Texas and Georgia, with 100% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 143 | not ranked | 1.7× |
| Texas | 47 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Georgia | 5 | not ranked | 0.3× |
Where Nely is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Nely is most over-represented in California: since 1973 it was given 1.7 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 Nely with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
How common is the spelling Nely?
Nely is a less common spelling of Nellie: SSA has recorded 603 Nely and 153,284 Nellie since 1880.
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 177,541 babies since 1880, Nely is the eighth most given (<1% of them). In 2025 it was given to 6 of their 931 babies (<1%), again the eighth most given.
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 Nely
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 Nely and names like it
- Compare Nely and NellieBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sNely peaked in 1992.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Nely since 1910.
- The top names of 1992The year the most babies were named Nely.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Nely alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with NMost given first.