How Many People Are Named Nellie?
An estimated 22,376 people in the United States have the first name Nellie. It is almost exclusively a female name. The average bearer is 60 years old, and Nellie peaked in popularity in 1918 with 4,057 births that year.
Below you will find a full statistical profile of Nellie as a first name in the United States, including gender data, a year-by-year popularity timeline going back to 1880, a decade breakdown, and state-by-state birth registrations. You can also check how many people share the full name Nellie paired with any surname.
Key Insights
- While Nellie is overwhelmingly female, 593 male births have been registered with this name since 1880.
Estimated Living Americans
22,376
About 1 in 15,318 people in the U.S.
Rarity
Uncommon
Predicted Gender
Female
99.6% confidence
Average Age
60
years old
Peak Year
1918
4,057 births
Total Registered
152,715
since 1880
Gender Distribution for Nellie
Nellie is almost exclusively a female name. Out of 152,715 total births registered, 99.6% were female.
Nellie as a male name
Ranked #3,635 in 1947
6 male births in 1947
Peak: 1924 (19 births)
Nellie as a female name
Ranked #521 in 2024
591 female births in 2024
Peak: 1918 (4,048 births)
Nellie: Popularity Over Time
SSA records for Nellie span from the 1880s to the 2020s, covering 15 decades of naming data. The most popular decade for this name was the 1910s, when 30,968 babies were registered. Nellie has declined significantly from its peak in the 1910s. Recent registrations are a fraction of what they were at the name's height.
Nellie by Decade
How has Nellie tracked across different eras? The table below groups all SSA birth registrations into 10-year periods, with separate male and female counts. The colored bar shows each decade's share relative to the peak.
| Decade | Total | Male | Female | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 13,826 | 65 | 13,761 | |
| 1890s | 17,372 | 87 | 17,285 | |
| 1900s | 16,394 | 55 | 16,339 | |
| 1910s | 30,968 | 89 | 30,879 | |
| 1920s | 29,817 | 128 | 29,689 | |
| 1930s | 17,835 | 132 | 17,703 | |
| 1940s | 10,244 | 37 | 10,207 | |
| 1950s | 5,361 | 0 | 5,361 | |
| 1960s | 2,409 | 0 | 2,409 | |
| 1970s | 1,479 | 0 | 1,479 | |
| 1980s | 1,112 | 0 | 1,112 | |
| 1990s | 838 | 0 | 838 | |
| 2000s | 971 | 0 | 971 | |
| 2010s | 1,859 | 0 | 1,859 | |
| 2020s | 2,230 | 0 | 2,230 | |
Nellie by State
Birth registrations for Nellie span all 50 states and territories in the SSA database. The highest counts are in North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama. The lowest are in Alaska, Delaware, Hawaii. On average, about 2,003 Nellies were registered per state.
Nellie + Last Name Combinations
How many people share a full name with Nellie as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Names Similar to Nellie
Other first names starting with N with a similar number of bearers.
Nellie: Questions and Answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Nellie?
We estimate approximately 22,376 people named Nellie are alive in the United States today. This is based on SSA birth records from 1880 to 2024, adjusted for mortality using CDC life tables. About 1 in 15,318 Americans share this first name.
Is Nellie a common name?
Nellie is classified as "Uncommon" and is more popular than 98.6% of all first names in the SSA database. A total of 152,715 births have been registered with this name since 1880.
When was Nellie most popular?
Nellie reached peak popularity in 1918, when 4,057 babies were given this name. The average age of a living person named Nellie is approximately 60 years old, reflecting when the name was most commonly given.
Is Nellie a female name?
Nellie is predominantly female. 99.6% of people with this name are female. See the gender breakdown above for full details.
How many Nellie Smiths are there?
To find how many people share a specific full name, we combine first name and surname frequencies. Try: Nellie Smith, Nellie Johnson, Nellie Williams. You can also search any combination on our homepage.
Where does this data come from?
Our estimates use Social Security Administration birth records (1880 to 2024), adjusted for survival using CDC 2023 life tables broken down by sex. The U.S. population figure (342,754,338) is from the Census Bureau's July 2025 estimate. Full methodology.
Search for a full name combination
How Many of Me