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I like Nellie and I think it can definitely stand on its own.

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Never liked Nell. It always sounded very Dickensian, and not in a good way.

This message was edited 8/19/2018, 9:31 AM

I don't like Nellie as a standalone name, it's too informal to my liking. Yet I do like Nell as a standalone, as it seems buttoned up and formal, in a way Nellie isn't.

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The impression it gives me is... well all I want to do is sing:

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Nellie the elephant packed her trunk
And said goodbye to the circus
Off she went with a trumpety-trump
Trump trump trump

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So no, I wouldn't use it.

This message was edited 8/19/2018, 6:39 AM

For some reason all I can think of the rapper Nelly and that annoying “It’s Getting Hot in a Here” whatever it was called. Just for the record, I’m not into rap music at all.

I love it as a nickname for Prunella. It feels too insubstantial to be a given name (though I know it has a significant history of such use).

I wouldn't use it. I think it's fine for someone else but I'd much rather see it as a nickname than a full name. Nellie is the nicest spelling, I prefer it over Nelly and Nelli. I can see it work nicely as a nickname for Eleanor, Ellen etc.

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The reason why I would never use it, not even as a nickname, and why I don't like it as much as I normally would is that I watched 'Little House on the Prairie' and the character called Nelly (not sure if it was spelled like that or as Nellie) was so awful that it has ruined the name somewhat. My second association is gymnast Nelli Kim.

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I wish I would meet an awesome Nellie because it's actually a nice name if you can have good associations with it.

1. Nellie the Elephant
2. Soft Nellie (idiot)
3. Nellie Bly
4. Just no....

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My BIL wanted to call my niece Nellie and was nearly divorced by the whole family

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Edited because autocorrect thinks I mean Mellor

This message was edited 8/18/2018, 5:58 AM

I used to like it as a nn for Penelope. Now I can't get past the image in my head of some hillbilly Grandma making moonshine or something. It just seems too county, too downhome etc for me.
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I had a great-aunt Nellie who was kindly but ferocious, and on the other side of the family an aunt Nellie who was a weeping widow for decades after uncle Joe died a premature death.

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Both had Nellie as a stand-alone fn.

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I prefer Nell, if one must. But if I'd had another daughter and wanted to use a family name, I'd have gone for Helen, or perhaps Elinor, Eleanor or Eloise; but I wouldn't have used Nell as a nn so it would have been cheating.

Whilst I think it's usually preferable to use something like Eleanor or Ellen as the given name, I really like the name Nellie as a stand alone.

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Sure, it's sweet, but Nell does carry some strength and seem somewhat formal to me. Softening the name to Nellie feels friendlier and more approachable. I would definitely encourage people to use it if they liked it :)

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I also associate the name with the Australian opera singer Dame Nellie Melba (her original name was Helen).

If I were formally named Nellie, I'd eventually use Penelope as though my legal name, which is not to disparage Nellie. I'd think that Nell or Nells would be short or affectionate names, too.

I think it’s fine as a stand alone name, but I’ve not warmed to Nellie. I don’t find Nell a particularly attractive sound, so I wouldn’t use Nellie. I’d imagine Nellie to be quite boisterous and energetic, it has a late Victorian/early Edwardian maid vibe, pretty much how I see Gwen, but louder. I think if I met a little Nellie I might like it more.

It's slang here for idiot, twit, etc: "I (did something idiotic) and I felt like a right nelly" so it's always sounded quite comical as a name to me, and I definitely wouldn't use it as a stand-alone name.

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Not sure when the slang use originated - my great-grandmother, her eldest daughter and a couple of cousins were all called Nell and Nellie, short for Helena - and it may be on its way out, as Nelly and Nellie both reappeared as stand-alone names in the last two England & Wales charts. But I prefer Nell by miles, and only as an nn.

Well, my understanding is that it usually did stand alone when it was popular.
I don't like it and would never use it. It's just too dowdy and old-ladyish for me to like it. And I'll never forget rotten Nellie Oleson.

I don’t love it as a standalone, but I don’t mind it as a nn for Penelope, Eleanor, Helen or Helena. It does have a bit of a horse association (“whoa Nellie!”), but that’s more of an older generation thing.

I'm honestly not too crazy for it as a standalone. I think it suits a dog better. An Italian Greyhound always comes to mind due to some children's film I've seen several times when I was younger. There was a very sweet an endearing dog of that breed named that. (Can't recall if it was the -ie spelling though)
On a person, I just see more as a nn

I like it. I've only really heard it used for musicians (Nellie McKay, Nelly Furtado, the rapper Nelly), so it makes me think of music, and my dad's great aunt (though I think her real name was actually Della Irene), who I've heard talked of fondly...and I have a distant memory of reading about Nellie Bly.

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I don't think I'd use it as a stand alone FN, mainly because *lie names are nms, but I wouldn't mind using it as a MN or NN.

I think it's extremely childish and whiney, and I've never understood why it's so popular here in Sweden. I'd imagine her Swedish sisters to be named something like Wilma and Tindra. Eww.

This message was edited 8/17/2018, 10:54 AM