Nelly Girl
How popular is Nelly?
#1,291 girl name in 2025
173 baby girls were named Nelly in the US in 2025, making it the 1291st most popular girl name. Another 9 boys got the name (#8,239 for boys).
Nelly popularity over time
Boys Girls
| Rank in 2025 | #1,291 for girls (▲ 67 from 2024) |
|---|---|
| Babies in 2025 | 173 girls, 9 boys |
| 10-year trend | Rising (+42% babies vs 2015) |
| Earlier ranks | #1,719 in 2015, #2,023 in 2020 |
| Peak year | 2007 (208 girls) |
| Highest rank | #596 in 1882 |
| First recorded | 1882 |
| Boys vs girls (last 10 years) | 3% boys, 97% girls |
| Chance a classmate shares it | 0.1% in a class of 25 kids born in 2025 |
Nelly 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 Nelly is most popular
Babies named Nelly per 1,000 girls born in each state, 2021 to 2025. Darker means more common.
- Illinois: 0.1 per 1,000 (32 girls)
- Minnesota: 0.1 per 1,000 (15 girls)
- California: 0.1 per 1,000 (116 girls)
- New Jersey: 0.1 per 1,000 (23 girls)
- Texas: 0.1 per 1,000 (95 girls)
Nelly by decade
| Decade | Baby girls | Best rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 50 | #596 |
| 1890s | 30 | #1,006 |
| 1900s | 62 | #1,136 |
| 1910s | 130 | #1,552 |
| 1920s | 210 | #1,540 |
| 1930s | 162 | #1,534 |
| 1940s | 160 | #1,682 |
| 1950s | 384 | #1,333 |
| 1960s | 428 | #1,392 |
| 1970s | 634 | #1,351 |
| 1980s | 770 | #1,429 |
| 1990s | 973 | #1,326 |
| 2000s | 1,596 | #1,205 |
| 2010s | 1,335 | #1,420 |
| 2020s | 868 | #1,291 |
Girl names about as popular as Nelly
Questions
- Is Nelly a boy or girl name?
- Nelly is mostly a girl name. Over the last 10 years, 97% of babies named Nelly were girls.
- How popular is the name Nelly?
- 173 baby girls were named Nelly in the US in 2025, making it the 1291st most popular girl name. Another 9 boys got the name (#8,239 for boys).
- When was Nelly most popular?
- Nelly peaked in 2007, when 208 girls were given the name. Its highest rank was #596 in 1882.
- How many people are named Nelly?
- 7,871 babies have been named Nelly in the US since 1880. We estimate about 7,009 of them are alive in 2026, with a median age of 24.
- Where is Nelly most popular?
- From 2021 to 2025, Nelly was most common in Illinois, at 0.1 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.