Nellie Girl
How popular is Nellie?
#533 girl name in 2025
567 baby girls were named Nellie in the US in 2025, making it the 533rd most popular girl name.
Nellie popularity over time
Boys Girls
| Rank in 2025 | #533 for girls (▼ 12 from 2024) |
|---|---|
| Babies in 2025 | 567 girls |
| 10-year trend | Rising fast (+188% babies vs 2015) |
| Earlier ranks | #1,239 in 2015, #840 in 2020 |
| Peak year | 1918 (4,048 girls) |
| Highest rank | #14 in 1881 |
| First recorded | 1880 |
| Boys vs girls (last 10 years) | 0% boys, 100% girls |
| Chance a classmate shares it | 0.4% in a class of 25 kids born in 2025 |
Nellie counting every spelling
Social Security counts each spelling as its own name. Adding together the spellings that sound alike, the Nellie family of names ranked #396 for girls in 2025 (#388 the year before), with 783 babies in all.
| Spelling | Girls in 2025 | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Nellie | 567 | 72% |
| Nelly | 173 | 22% |
| Nelli | 25 | 3% |
| Neli | 6 | 1% |
| Nely | 6 | 1% |
| Nellee | 6 | 1% |
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 Nellie is most popular
Babies named Nellie per 1,000 girls born in each state, 2021 to 2025. Darker means more common.
Nellie by decade
| Decade | Baby girls | Best rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 13,761 | #14 |
| 1890s | 17,285 | #20 |
| 1900s | 16,339 | #41 |
| 1910s | 30,879 | #51 |
| 1920s | 29,689 | #76 |
| 1930s | 17,703 | #113 |
| 1940s | 10,207 | #161 |
| 1950s | 5,360 | #283 |
| 1960s | 2,409 | #507 |
| 1970s | 1,479 | #836 |
| 1980s | 1,112 | #1,034 |
| 1990s | 838 | #1,343 |
| 2000s | 971 | #1,742 |
| 2010s | 1,859 | #861 |
| 2020s | 2,800 | #521 |
Girl names about as popular as Nellie
Questions
- Is Nellie a boy or girl name?
- Nellie is mostly a girl name. Over the last 10 years, 100% of babies named Nellie were girls.
- How popular is the name Nellie?
- 567 baby girls were named Nellie in the US in 2025, making it the 533rd most popular girl name.
- When was Nellie most popular?
- Nellie peaked in 1918, when 4,048 girls were given the name. Its highest rank was #14 in 1881.
- How many people are named Nellie?
- 153,284 babies have been named Nellie in the US since 1880. We estimate about 27,622 of them are alive in 2026, with a median age of 73.
- Where is Nellie most popular?
- From 2021 to 2025, Nellie was most common in Nebraska, at 1.4 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.