Nellie
Pronounced N EH1 L IY0 (ARPABET)
- 2 syllables
- Peaked 1918
- 145 years in use
- 1 spelling
How popular is Nellie?
Nellie is a girls' name, and has been in the record since the data starts in 1880. It has been given to 160,764 children — the 267th most common girls' name on record.
It peaked in 1918, went quiet for most of a century, and is climbing again. Its best single year was 1918, when 4,068 children were given it.
Nelly is counted with it here, since the two are pronounced identically.
Spelling variants
These spellings sound identical to Nellie and are counted together with it, which is why the totals here are higher than a single-spelling count.
- Nelly
Characteristics
- 2 syllables
Phonetic detail
- Pronunciations:
- N EH1 L IY0
- Stress pattern:
- 10
- Syllables:
- 2
Stress digits mark unstressed (0), primary (1) and secondary (2) syllables.
Names like Nellie
Same first letter and syllable count, peaking around the same time.
Sibling names for Nellie
Names from the same era with a matching rhythm but a different initial.
Frequently asked questions
- How popular is the name Nellie?
- Nellie ranks 267th among girls' names in US records, with 160,764 births since 1880. Over the past decade it accounts for 4,835.
- Is Nellie a unisex name?
- No. Nellie is recorded almost entirely as a girls' name; births to the other gender are too few to register as a share.
- When was Nellie most popular?
- 1918, when 4,068 children were given the name. It has been in use for 145 years and is still recorded as of 2024.
- How else is Nellie spelled?
- Nelly. All of these sound the same and are counted together in the totals on this page.