A female name. a pet-form of Ellen, Eleanor, and Helen (qq.v.). Nel or Nell is not uncommon in medieval records, and though it is often a man’s name (Neil), it is also sometimes a woman’s. Nell Gwyn’s name was Eleanor.

A male name. the history of this name is complicated and rather obscure, but it is probably of Irish origin, Niul, a derivative of niadh ‘champion’. From Ireland it must have been introduced fairly early into Iceland, where it appears as Njal (e.g. the Njals Saga) and thence to Scandinavia, and eventually to France by the Normans, in the form Nel or Nele. It was latinized as Nigellus and taken to be a diminutive of niger ‘black’. In England it was well established amongst the Danes and Norsemen before the Norman Conquest, and in Domesday Book there are many tenants of the name holding both then and Tempore Regis Edwardi (In the Reign of Edward the Confessor). Nel, Nele, Neel appear to have been the usual forms of the name in England, Neill in Ireland; it gave rise to the surnames Neil, Neild, Neal, Nell, Nelson, Nielson, &c., as well as FitzNeel. In the 15th C there arose a back-formation from the Latin Nigellus, e.g. English Register of Oseney Abbey, c. 1460 (E.E.T.S. 133-4) 1460 has Nygell, Nigelle, but Lyford 1655 gives Neale as still in use. Both forms of the name are now mainly Scottish; Niall is the usual Irish form.

Nigellus Domesday Book 1086, Curia Regis Rolls 1187—1220, Hundred Rolls 1273, Feudal Aids 1346. Nel Hundred Rolls 1273. Nell Hundred Rolls 1273. Neel Close Rolls 1303, Feudal Aids 1346. Nele Yorks Poll Tax of West Riding of Yorkshire 1379 1379.

NELLIE, NELLY. Diminutives of Helen and Eleanor(a), but occasionally used with no reference to Helen, precisely as Jack is sometimes used independently of John.