How popular is the baby name Nelly 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 Nelly.
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In 2002, the name Nelly appeared as a boy name for the first time in the U.S. baby name data:
2004: unlisted
2003: 7 baby boys named Nelly
2002: 5 baby boys named Nelly (gender-specific debut)
2001: unlisted
2000: unlisted
Why?
Because of St. Louis-based rapper and singer Nelly (birth name: Cornell Haynes, Jr.).
Nelly was particularly successful in 2002. He’d already scored a couple of top-ten hits — “Country Grammar” in 2000, and “Ride wit Me” in 2001 — but 2002 was the year that two of his songs spent a total of 17 weeks atop Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart.
“Hot in Herre” ranked #1 for seven weeks straight, from late June to mid-August. It was knocked out of the top spot by…
“Dilemma” (feat. Kelly Rowland), which also ranked #1 for seven weeks straight, from mid-August to late September. It regained the top position for another three weeks, from mid-October to early November, after being temporarily dislodged (by a different Kelly — recent American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson with her debut single “A Moment Like This”).
Both “Hot in Herre” and “Dilemma” went on to win Grammy Awards (for Best Male Rap Solo Performance and Best Rap/Sung Collaboration, respectively) in early 2003.
What are your thoughts on the name Nelly? Do you like it more as a boy name or as a girl name (à la Nelly Furtado)?
P.S. The song that “Hot in Herre” ousted in mid-2002 was “Foolish” by Ashanti. More than twenty years later, Nelly and Ashanti got married (in late 2023) and welcomed a baby boy (in mid-2024) named Kareem Kenkaide Haynes. His middle name is Ashanti’s father’s name.
Portuguese-Canadian pop singer Nelly Furtado was born in British Columbia in December of 1978.
Her full name at birth was Nelly Kim Furtado, and, back when she was promoting her first album, she mentioned (during a Yahoo! Music chat) that her given names were inspired by an athlete:
lovegrowsdeeper: is nelly short for noella?
launch_nelly_furtado: No, just Nelly. Nelly Kim Furtado. I was named after a gymnast.
Soviet gymnast Nelli Kim competed against Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. Both Nelli and Nadia earned more than one “perfect 10” at the Games that year, but Nadia’s initial 10 came first.
During the years she was competing, Kim’s first name was typically transliterated “Nelli.” These days she lives in the U.S. and seems to prefer the spelling “Nellie.”
Interestingly, Nellie Kim knows about her namesake and is eager to meet her:
– Do you know the singer Nelly Furtado, who was named after you?
– Her full name is Nelly Kim Furtado. Here’s the story… I don’t know how to contact her. About 10-15 years ago she came to Minneapolis with a concert, my American friends wrote her an email: Dear Nelly, you know, Nellie Kim is also here, it would be great to meet, gather both Nellie Kims, get acquainted. But there is probably some filtering going on there: someone from her management apparently considered this letter a joke.
But who knows what will happen — maybe some journalist will tell her: dear, there’s this Nellie Kim, she lives basically across the road from you. You’re in Canada, she’s in Minneapolis, an hour flight.
If you’re on the hunt for baby names with a numerological value of 5, you’re in luck! Because today’s post features hundreds of 5-names.
Before we get to the names, though — how do we know that they’re “fives” in numerology?
Turning names into numbers
Here’s how to calculate the numerological value of a name.
First, for each letter, come up with a number to represent that letter’s position in the alphabet. (Letter A would be number 1, letter B would be number 2, and so forth.) Then, add all the numbers together. If the sum has two or more digits, add the digits together recursively until the result is a single digit. That single digit is the name’s numerological value.
For instance, the letters in the name Peyton correspond to the numbers 16, 5, 25, 20, 15, and 14. The sum of these numbers is 95. The digits of 95 added together equal 14, and the digits of 14 added together equal 5 — the numerological value of Peyton.
Baby names with a value of 5
Below you’ll find the most popular 5-names per gender, according to the latest U.S. baby name data. I’ve further sub-categorized them by total sums — just in case any of those larger numbers are significant to anyone.
5 via 14
The letters in the following baby names add up to 14, which reduces to five (1+4=5).
Girl names (5 via 14)
Boy names (5 via 14)
Ida, Adah, Caia, Dia, Becca
Ahad, Adi, Dj, Kc, Jac
5 via 23
The letters in the following baby names add up to 23, which reduces to five (2+3=5).
Girl names (5 via 23)
Boy names (5 via 23)
Mia, Alia, Aila, Adela, Cara, Addie, Laia, Edie, Jaci, Ami
Caleb, Coda, Acen, Iam, Adem
5 via 32
The letters in the following baby names add up to 32, which reduces to five (3+2=5).
There’s no definitive answer, unfortunately, because various numerological systems exist, and each one has its own interpretation of the number five. That said, if we look at a couple of modern numerology/astrology websites, we see 5 being described as “freedom-loving,” “dynamic,” “adaptable,” “curious,” and “unpredictable.”
We can also look at associations, which are a bit more concrete. Here are some things that are associated with the number 5:
Fingers
High-five (hand gesture)
Toes
Senses (sight, smell, touch, taste, hearing)
Tastes (sweet, salty, sour, bitter, umami)
Starfish (most starfish have 5 arms)
Basketball (5 players per side)
Olympic Games (symbolized by 5 interlocked rings)
Greek classical elements (water, earth, air, fire, aether)
Quintessence (refers to the fifth element, aether, which was a late addition to the list)
Chinese traditional elements (water, fire, earth, wood, metal)
What does the number 5 mean to you? What are your strongest associations with the number?
P.S. To see names with other numerological values, check out the posts for the numbers one, two, three, four, six, seven, eight, and nine.
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