Nell

Attested across 22 languages in the etymology graph.

Names that people choosing a name often weigh against Nell, most often first. They share a style rather than an origin.

• Penny
• Tess
• Janelle
• Penelope
• Petronella

From the names suggested together in public name-advice forums, in English. A list of what people consider, not a measure of how common any name is.

Nell is also recorded as 4 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• French given name8 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in France, United States, Belgium, Italy

  Languages: French, Italian

  Also written Nell', Nęll, Néll, Ñell, Nèll

• Spanish given name5 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Philippines, Argentina, Peru

  Languages: Spanish, Portuguese

  Also written Nëll, Néll

• Polish given name4 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Poland, Czechia, United States, Slovakia

  Languages: Polish, Czech, Slovak

  Also written Nęlĺ

• Indonesian given name2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Indonesia, United States, Philippines, Malaysia

  Also written Ñéll

60 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Nell is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• nickname from Middle High German nelle ‘crown of the head’, perhaps denoting an obstinate person.

  as a name·Dictionary of American Family Names

• Medieval short form of Eleanor, pEllen, and pHelen. For the initial N-, compare Nan and pNed. It was the name by which Charles II’s mistress Eleanor Gwyn (1650-87) was universally known to her contemporaries, and at about that time it also became established as an independent name. Pet forms: Nellie, Nelly.

  as a name·A concise dictionary of first names

• In English, Neil. Cogn.: Fr.: Nel. Patr.: Eng.: Nelson. The S African surname Nel was first established there in i6go by a family of Huguenot refugees from Rouen.

  as a name·A dictionary of surnames

• from the Middle English personal name Nel(le), a variant of Neill.

  as a name·Dictionary of American Family Names

• from the personal name Nel, a reduced form of Cornelius.

  as a name·Dictionary of American Family Names

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

• Nell Carterb. 1948USAmerican actress and singer (1948–2003)
• Nell Campbellb. 1953AUAustralian actor and singer
• Reba McEntireb. 1955USnot in their usual nameAmerican country singer and actress (born 1955)

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.

83 registers and reference works attest this spelling, across 40 countries.

Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.

What are other forms of the name Nell?

In the etymology graph, Elena, Helen and Ellen are forms of the same name in other languages; Nelly and Nellie are recorded short or pet forms; it is recorded as a short form of Elnora.

What does the name Nell mean, and where does it come from?

(i) from the medieval personal name Nel, a form of Neil; (ii) from Dutch/German Nel, a shortened form of Cornelius. Recorded by Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history].

Is Nell a male or female name?

Nell is a female name. National registers that list it by sex list it as female: United States (Census Bureau, 2020), France (INSEE, 2024), Poland (dane.gov.pl) and Norway (SSB).

Which countries have the most people named Nell?

Mondonomo estimates about 24 thousand people named Nell in Pakistan, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled nell. After it come United States, United Kingdom, France and Canada; the country table on this page ranks them.

How do you pronounce Nell?

In English /nɛl/ (Wiktionary).

How common is the name Nell?

In the United States, the national register counted 7,222 people named Nell in 2020, about 1 in 46 thousand residents.

How common is Nell compared with other names?

In Ireland, Nell is the 468th most common given name of 14,976 given names recorded there.