# Nelly (first name)

Source: https://namelineage.com/first-name/nelly/  
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 | 7,871 since 1880 |
| Boys / girls in the US | 79 / 7,792 (99% girls) |
| Babies in England and Wales | 1,960, 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 147 | 1,513 |
| 2012 | 159 | 1,442 |
| 2013 | 130 | 1,642 |
| 2014 | 139 | 1,567 |
| 2015 | 122 | 1,725 |
| 2016 | 104 | 1,938 |
| 2017 | 128 | 1,683 |
| 2018 | 99 | 1,995 |
| 2019 | 146 | 1,496 |
| 2020 | 92 | 2,029 |
| 2021 | 135 | 1,561 |
| 2022 | 158 | 1,428 |
| 2023 | 142 | 1,517 |
| 2024 | 168 | 1,362 |
| 2025 | 173 | 1,294 |

### United States, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2002 | 5 | 11,923 |
| 2003 | 7 | 9,328 |
| 2005 | 7 | 9,837 |
| 2006 | 7 | 10,336 |
| 2007 | 5 | 13,816 |
| 2010 | 7 | 10,427 |
| 2015 | 6 | 11,682 |
| 2019 | 6 | 11,733 |
| 2021 | 9 | 8,637 |
| 2023 | 5 | 13,576 |
| 2024 | 6 | 11,926 |
| 2025 | 9 | 8,710 |

### England and Wales, girls

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 41 | 877 |
| 2012 | 53 | 749 |
| 2013 | 49 | 784 |
| 2014 | 55 | 715 |
| 2015 | 96 | 449 |
| 2016 | 72 | 585 |
| 2017 | 88 | 493 |
| 2018 | 141 | 340 |
| 2019 | 211 | 234 |
| 2020 | 201 | 232 |
| 2021 | 186 | 256 |
| 2022 | 172 | 266 |
| 2023 | 140 | 311 |
| 2024 | 99 | 432 |
| 2025 | 121 | 353 |

### England and Wales, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2005 | 5 | 2,754 |
| 2025 | 3 | 5,137 |

## People named Nelly

- Nelly Korda, American golfer
- Nelly Kaplan, French filmmaker and writer (1931–2020)
- Nelly Landry, Belgian-French tennis player
- Nelly Arcan, Canadian novelist (1975–2009)
- Nelly Aginian, chess player
- Nelly Roussel, French activist (1878–1922)
- Nelly Karim, Egyptian ballerina and actress
- Nelly Omar, Argentine actress and singer
- Nelly Mbangu, Congolese women's and children's rights campaigner
- Nelly Bodenheim, Dutch illustrator known for silhouettes (1874–1951)
- Nelly Mazloum, Egyptian actress and dancer (1929–2003)
- Nelly Olin, French politician (1941–2017)

## 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.