Spellings
Nellie or Nelly?
In the US in 2025, 77% of babies in this name family were spelled Nellie and 23% Nelly. Same name, slightly different impression: here are the figures for each spelling.
Ten years ago
Nellie already led in 2015, with 62% of the family's births; it has 77% in 2025. All spellings together, the family went from 319 to 740 births (×2).
| Spelling | 2015 | 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nellie | 197 | 567 | ×3 |
| Nelly | 122 | 173 | +42% |
How they sound
All of these spellings are said the same way: /ˈnɛli/ (NEL-ee). So the choice is about how it looks: it is the spelling people will read on a birth card, a name tag or an email address, and the one your child will sometimes spell out.
In France
In France in 2025: Nellie 5 births and Nelly 55 births (#699 among girls).
Sources: Social Security Administration (SSA), Insee (France), 2025 data. How we calculate these figures.
Which spelling is yours?
The one-minute style quiz.