# Nel (first name)

Source: https://namelineage.com/first-name/nel/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. US counts from the Social Security Administration; England and Wales counts from the Office for National Statistics; meaning and etymology from Wiktionary. Data updated 2026-11-11.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Usually given to | girls |
| Origin | not recorded |
| Meaning | not recorded |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Nicknames | none recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |
| US babies named this | 133 since 1880 |
| Boys / girls in the US | 0 / 133 (100% girls) |
| Babies in England and Wales | 762, 1996 to 2025 |

## Popularity

The last 15 years of each series. A year is missing when too few babies were given the name for the agency to publish it: five in the US, three in England and Wales.

### United States, girls

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1951 | 5 | 5,987 |
| 2008 | 5 | 19,637 |
| 2009 | 7 | 14,790 |
| 2011 | 6 | 16,224 |
| 2013 | 11 | 10,063 |
| 2015 | 10 | 10,665 |
| 2016 | 6 | 15,692 |
| 2017 | 9 | 11,360 |
| 2019 | 8 | 12,118 |
| 2020 | 7 | 13,094 |
| 2021 | 5 | 16,986 |
| 2022 | 7 | 13,197 |
| 2023 | 8 | 11,900 |
| 2024 | 8 | 11,861 |
| 2025 | 6 | 14,435 |

### England and Wales, girls

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 30 | 1,117 |
| 2012 | 35 | 1,018 |
| 2013 | 29 | 1,177 |
| 2014 | 45 | 842 |
| 2015 | 41 | 891 |
| 2016 | 42 | 881 |
| 2017 | 49 | 797 |
| 2018 | 41 | 902 |
| 2019 | 42 | 864 |
| 2020 | 39 | 916 |
| 2021 | 43 | 828 |
| 2022 | 42 | 839 |
| 2023 | 31 | 1,087 |
| 2024 | 47 | 795 |
| 2025 | 39 | 894 |

## People named Nel

- Nel van Vliet, Dutch swimmer (1926-2006)
- Nel Noddings, American philosopher (1929–2022)

## How to read these numbers

A count is babies registered with that name in that year, not people alive now, so a name common a century ago can have a large total and few recent births.