How popular is the baby name Nell in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Use the popularity graph and data table below to find out! Plus, see all the blog posts that mention the name Nell.

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Popularity of the baby name Nell


Posts that mention the name Nell

What brought the baby name Zoella back in the 2010s?

English blogger/vlogger Zoe Sugg
Zoe Sugg

While I was checking out my traffic stats the other day, I noticed that my Zoella page has been getting a weirdly high number of visitors lately. Which is odd, because Zoella isn’t exactly an in-demand baby name.

In the U.S., usage of rare Zoella peaked in the last decades of the 1800s and first decades of the 1900s. The name has only appeared in the SSA’s baby name data a total of three times:

  • 2012: unlisted
  • 2011: 5 baby girls named Zoella
  • 2010: unlisted
  • […]
  • 1922: unlisted
  • 1921: 5 baby girls named Zoella
  • 1920: 5 baby girls named Zoella [debut]
  • 1919: unlisted

Why are people searching for a name that hasn’t been in style for nearly a century? And, why might Zoella have popped back into the data recently?

Beyond the fact that Zoella looks like a combination of the trendy names Zoe and Ella, my best guess is popular beauty and fashion blogger/vlogger Zoella, a.k.a. 23-year-old Zoë Sugg of Wiltshire, England.

Zoella won the Cosmo Blog Award for “Best established beauty blog” in 2011 and, just a few weeks ago, won “Best British Vlogger” at BBC Radio 1’s Teen Awards. She currently has around 3 million subscribers on YouTube.

If Zoella’s visibility has indeed inspired parents to start naming their baby girls Zoella, this could be the very first case of a blogger/vlogger affecting the baby name charts.

Do you like the name Zoella? Do you think it’ll become more popular over the next few years?

P.S. I’ve checked the full England & Wales popularity lists going back to 2007. So far, no Zoella.

Update, Oct. 2020: Zoella has appeared in the data quite a bit since I published this post seven years ago! Here are the latest numbers for Zoella:

  • 2019: 31 baby girls named Zoella
  • 2018: 34 baby girls named Zoella
  • 2017: 13 baby girls named Zoella
  • 2016: 20 baby girls named Zoella
  • 2015: 20 baby girls named Zoella
  • 2014: 13 baby girls named Zoella
  • 2013: 6 baby girls named Zoella
  • 2012: unlisted
  • 2011: 5 baby girls named Zoella
  • 2010: unlisted

And here’s a visual:

baby name Zoella popularity graph

I find it very interesting that the baby name data seems to mirror (with a several-year lag) the Google Trends graph for Zoella:

“United States. 10/25/08 – 10/25/20. Web Search.”

(That high point happened in December of 2014.)

Where do you think the name Zoella is headed? Will usage start to taper off (like the searches did), or will the name stick around in the data (despite the waning popularity of the vlogger who drew attention to it in the first place)?

Update, Jan. 2025: Last month, Zoë Sugg and her boyfriend, Alfred “Alfie” Deyes, welcomed their second daughter, Novie Nell. (Here’s the IG announcement.) Their first daughter, born in mid-2021, was named Ottilie Rue. The name Ottilie was already becoming trendy in England and Wales when they chose it, but Novie is still quite rare. (It was given to just 8 baby girls in 2023.) Do you think we’ll see an uptick in the usage of Novie in England and Wales in 2025?

Sources: Zoe Sugg – Wikipedia, SSA

Image: Adapted from Zoe Sugg by Gage Skidmore under CC BY-SA 2.0.

[Latest update: Jan. 2025]

110+ Hidden gems: Rare baby girl names

gems

Want a girl name that’s not popular, but also not unheard of?

I looked through the names at the bottom of SSA’s 2011 mega-list and found a bunch of hidden gems:

  1. Alberta (9 baby girls)
  2. Alexandrina (6)
  3. Amity (28)
  4. Apollonia (21)
  5. Augusta (31)
  6. Augustina (15)
  7. Avelina (34)
  8. Bernadine (6)
  9. Bertha (45)
  10. Bettina (8)
  11. Blanche (6)
  12. Bryony (5); Briony (16)
  13. Carlotta (20)
  14. Celestina (19)
  15. Celestine (7)
  16. Cicely (14)
  17. Claribel (19)
  18. Clarice (37)
  19. Clarity (17)
  20. Claudette (9)
  21. Claudine (9)
  22. Clementina (7)
  23. Constantina (5)
  24. Coretta (5)
  25. Corinna (37)
  26. Cornelia (17)
  27. Damiana (10)
  28. Davida (10)
  29. Delphine (26)
  30. Dinah (44)
  31. Dolores (39)
  32. Dorothea (15)
  33. Edwina (8)
  34. Eloisa (42)
  35. Enid (15)
  36. Ernestina (5)
  37. Eugenia (29)
  38. Eugenie (8)
  39. Eulalia (25)
  40. Euphemia (5)
  41. Evita (13)
  42. Fabiana (47)
  43. Faustina (21)
  44. Flavia (12)
  45. Floriana (6)
  46. Florina (6)
  47. Georgette (24)
  48. Gertrude (16)
  49. Gloriana (22)
  50. Golda (34)
  51. Goldie (37)
  52. Heloise (8)
  53. Henrietta (34)
  54. Hilda (40)
  55. Imelda (23)
  56. Io (9)
  57. Ione (26)
  58. Isidora (13)
  59. Jeanne (39)
  60. Josette (27)
  61. Junia (17)
  62. Linnaea (12)
  63. Lucette (7)
  64. Lucienne (43)
  65. Lucilla (12)
  66. Marietta (22)
  67. Maude (9)
  68. Mavis (38)
  69. Minerva (38)
  70. Nanette (8)
  71. Nell (32)
  72. Nella (38)
  73. Nicola (30)
  74. Nicoletta (19)
  75. Nicolina (29)
  76. Odette (48)
  77. Olympia (22)
  78. Orla (28); Orlagh (6)
  79. Phillipa (10)
  80. Philomena (41)
  81. Phyllis (20)
  82. Rhoda (28)
  83. Romana (6)
  84. Rosabella (46)
  85. Rosalba (17)
  86. Rosaline (20)
  87. Rosella (26)
  88. Rosetta (25)
  89. Rosette (5)
  90. Rosina (17)
  91. Rowena (15)
  92. Rubina (5)
  93. Rue (13)
  94. Sebastiana (5)
  95. Seraphine (19)
  96. Sigrid (15)
  97. Stephania (32)
  98. Sybilla (5)
  99. Talulla (5)
  100. Therese (47)
  101. Thomasina (6)
  102. Thora (19)
  103. Tova (43)
  104. Ulyssa (8)
  105. Ursula (25)
  106. Vashti (16)
  107. Verity (38)
  108. Violetta (46)
  109. Vita (36)
  110. Wanda (23)
  111. Winifred (30)
  112. Winona (20)
  113. Xanthe (7)
  114. Zenaida (36)
  115. Zenobia (22)
  116. Zillah (9)
  117. Zipporah (41); Tzipporah (12)

(In some cases, a different spelling of the name is more popular than what’s shown here. For instance, Isidora is rare, but Isadora is more common.)

Like any of these?

Did you spot any other great end-of-the-list names?

P.S. Here’s the boys’ list.

Image: Adapted from Birmanian rock crystals by Mauro Cateb under CC BY-SA 3.0.

The minor mystery of Maginel

I recently learned that actress Anne Baxter had three daughters: Katrina, Melissa and Maginel. Katrina and Melissa are names I’d seen before, but Maginel was new to me. So of course I had to dig a little deeper.

Turns out Maginel’s name is pronounced with a hard g. She was named after a great aunt who was known as Maginel–a contracted form of Maggie Nell, which was short for Margaret Ellen.

Great Aunt Maginel was the younger sister of famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright, Anne Baxter’s grandfather. (Talk about an impressive family tree!)

Her streamlined nickname reminds me of Melvil, which is the way librarian Melville Dewey used to spell his first name.

Sources:

  • Rosenfield, Paul. “Theatrical Life of a Misfit.” Los Angeles Times. 5 Dec. 1976: S53.
  • Savoy, Maggie. “Anne Baxter Keeps Her Wigs On.” Los Angeles Times. 6 Nov. 1969: F1.
  • Secrest, Meryle. Frank Lloyd Wright: A Biography. Chicago: University Of Chicago Press, 1988.

Baby names for space lovers (Namestorm #11)

Captivated by the cosmos? You might enjoy this list of space-inspired baby names:

Robert (and Nell)
American physicist Robert Goddard launched the first liquid-fueled rocket (nicknamed Nell) in Auburn, Massachusetts on March 16, 1926.

Yuri
Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to enter space and return safely on April 12, 1961.

Alan
Astronaut Alan Shepard became the first American in space on May 5, 1961.

Valentina
Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space on June 16, 1963.

Alexey (and Eva)
Cosmonaut Alexey Leonov carried out the first EVA (extra-vehicular activity–in this case, a spacewalk) on March 18, 1965.

Edwin and Neil
Astronauts Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin and Neil Armstrong become the first men to walk on the moon on July 20, 1969.

Vladimir
Czechoslovak cosmonaut Vladimír Remek became the first Non-American, non-Soviet in space on March 2, 1978.

Sally
Astronaut Sally Ride became the first American woman in space on June 18, 1983.

Svetlana
Cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya became the first woman to perform a spacewalk on July 25, 1984.

Anna
Astronaut Anna Fisher became the first mother in space* on November 8, 1984.

Helen
British cosmonaut Helen Sharman became the first non-American, non-Soviet female in space on May 18, 1991.

Peggy
American biochemist Peggy Whitson became the first resident scientist of the International Space Station in 2002.

And now, a couple of questions:

  • Can you come up with any other space-related baby names?
  • What interests/activities should we namestorm about next?

*By “the first mother in space,” I mean the first woman with children to go into space, not the first woman to give birth in space.

Sources: Key Milestones in Space Exploration, Space Exploration Timeline, Wikipedia, Women in Space