Nell Girl
How popular is Nell?
#1,622 girl name in 2025
128 baby girls were named Nell in the US in 2025, making it the 1622nd most popular girl name.
Nell popularity over time
Boys Girls
| Rank in 2025 | #1,622 for girls (▼ 165 from 2024) |
|---|---|
| Babies in 2025 | 128 girls |
| 10-year trend | Rising fast (+110% babies vs 2015) |
| Earlier ranks | #2,846 in 2015, #2,257 in 2020 |
| Peak year | 1917 (766 girls) |
| Highest rank | #144 in 1886 |
| First recorded | 1880 |
| Boys vs girls (last 10 years) | 0% boys, 100% girls |
| Chance a classmate shares it | 0.1% in a class of 25 kids born in 2025 |
Nell counting every spelling
Social Security counts each spelling as its own name. Adding together the spellings that sound alike, the Nell family of names ranked #1,141 for girls in 2025 (#1,085 the year before), with 167 babies in all.
| Spelling | Girls in 2025 | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Nell | 128 | 77% |
| Nelle | 33 | 20% |
| Nel | 6 | 4% |
Spellings are grouped by how they sound, using our own rules, so a few groupings may not match how your family says the name.
Where Nell is most popular
Babies named Nell per 1,000 girls born in each state, 2021 to 2025. Darker means more common.
- Colorado: 0.3 per 1,000 (30 girls)
- Illinois: 0.3 per 1,000 (58 girls)
- Massachusetts: 0.2 per 1,000 (19 girls)
- New York: 0.1 per 1,000 (57 girls)
- Virginia: 0.1 per 1,000 (21 girls)
Nell by decade
| Decade | Baby girls | Best rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 1,345 | #144 |
| 1890s | 2,138 | #160 |
| 1900s | 2,436 | #185 |
| 1910s | 5,613 | #202 |
| 1920s | 6,034 | #238 |
| 1930s | 3,984 | #284 |
| 1940s | 2,074 | #393 |
| 1950s | 1,122 | #680 |
| 1960s | 462 | #1,180 |
| 1970s | 340 | #1,939 |
| 1980s | 271 | #2,391 |
| 1990s | 259 | #3,232 |
| 2000s | 259 | #3,699 |
| 2010s | 579 | #1,773 |
| 2020s | 696 | #1,457 |
Girl names about as popular as Nell
Questions
- Is Nell a boy or girl name?
- Nell is mostly a girl name. Over the last 10 years, 100% of babies named Nell were girls.
- How popular is the name Nell?
- 128 baby girls were named Nell in the US in 2025, making it the 1622nd most popular girl name.
- When was Nell most popular?
- Nell peaked in 1917, when 766 girls were given the name. Its highest rank was #144 in 1886.
- How many people are named Nell?
- 27,710 babies have been named Nell in the US since 1880. We estimate about 6,262 of them are alive in 2026, with a median age of 71.
- Where is Nell most popular?
- From 2021 to 2025, Nell was most common in Colorado, at 0.3 of every 1,000 girls born there.
Source: Social Security Administration baby name data, 1880 to 2025 (names given to at least 5 babies of a sex in a year). Living-people and median-age figures are our estimates using US life tables. How we calculate.