Nelly (given name)

Nelly and Nellie are female given names, also used as nicknames, which are derived from the names Helen, Ellen, Petronella, Danielle, Cornelia, Eleanor, Janelle, Chanelle, Penelope, Elizabeth, Natalie or Noelia.

Women

 * Nelly Artin Kalfayan (born 1949), Egyptian-Armenian entertainer, actress and presenter
 * Nelly Arcan (1973–2009), Canadian writer, born Isabelle Fortier
 * Nellie Barsness (1873–1966), American physician
 * Nelly Beltrán (1925–2007), Argentine actress, born Nélida Dodó López Valverde
 * Nelly Ben-Or (born 1933), Polish concert pianist and professor
 * Nelly Blair (1759–1820), later Nelly Smith, sometimes suggested as being Scottish poet Robert Burns' first love (see also Nelly Kilpatrick)
 * Nellie Bly (1864–1922), American journalist
 * Nellie Bushell (1884-1948, Irish textile artist and political activist.
 * Nellie Moyer Budd (1860–1944), American music teacher
 * Nellie Marie Burns (ca. 1850–1897), American actor and poet
 * Nelly Carrillo Tarazona de Espinoza (1927–2017), Peruvian herpetologist
 * Nelly Ciobanu (born 1974), Moldovan singer
 * Ellen Crocker (1872–1962) also known as 'Nellie' or 'Nelly', British suffragette
 * Nellie Farren (1848–1904), English actress and singer
 * Nelly Furtado (born 1978), Canadian singer-songwriter, instrumentalist, and record producer
 * Nelly Armande Guillerm, birth name of Violette Verdy (1933–2016), French ballerina, choreographer, teacher, dance company director and writer
 * Nelly Garzón Alarcón (1932–2019), Colombian nurse, teacher
 * Nellie A. Hope (1864-1918), American violinist, music teacher, orchestra conductor
 * Nelly Karim (born 1974), Egyptian actress, model and ballerina
 * Nelly Kilpatrick, later Nelly Bone (1759–1820), possibly Robert Burns' first love and muse (see also Nelly Blair)
 * Nellie Kim (born 1957), Soviet gymnast
 * Nellie van Kol (1851-1930), Dutch feminist, educator, and children's author
 * Nelly Korda (born 1998), American golfer
 * Nelly Láinez (1920–2008), Argentine comedic actress
 * Nelly Landry (1916–2010), French tennis player, 1948 French Open champion
 * Nellie McClung (1873–1951), Canadian feminist, politician, and social activist
 * Nellie McKay (born 1982), British-born American singer-songwriter and actress
 * Nellie V. Mark (1857–1935), American physician and suffragist
 * Nelly Nichol Marshall (1845–1898), American author
 * Nelly Mazloum (1929–2003), Egyptian actress, choreographer, dancer and dance teacher
 * Nellie Melba (1861–1931), Australian opera soprano
 * Nellie Morrice (1881–1963), Australian army and bush nurse administrator
 * Nelly Núñez (1948–2021), Bolivian politician
 * Nelly Olin (1941–2017), Minister of Environment in France (2005–07)
 * Nellie Roberts (1872–1959), British botanical artist
 * Nellie Tayloe Ross (1876–1977), first American woman state governor
 * Nelly Sachs (1891–1970), German poet and dramatist awarded the 1966 Nobel Prize for Literature, born Leonie Sachs
 * Nellie R. Santiago (born 1943), New York state senator
 * Nellie George Stearns (1855–1936), American artist and teacher of art
 * Eleanor Nellie Stewart (1858–1931), Australian actress and singer
 * Nelly Such (born 1992), Hungarian handballer
 * Nelly Tagar (born 1982), Israeli actress and stand-up comedian
 * Nellie Teale (1900–1993), American naturalist
 * Nelly Ternan or Nelly Robinson, names used for Ellen Ternan (1839–1914), English actress, mistress of Charles Dickens
 * Nelly Thüring (1875–1972), Swedish politician, one of the first women elected to the Swedish parliament
 * Nelly Viennot (born 1962), French football referee
 * Nelly Walker, birth name of Nella Larsen (1891–1964), American modernist novelist
 * Nelly Wicky (1923–2020), Swiss Labour Party politician and former member of the Swiss National Council
 * Nellie Yu Roung Ling (1889–1973), Chinese dancer and lady-in-waiting in Qing imperial court

Men

 * Nellie King (1928–2010), American baseball player and radio announcer
 * Nelly, stage name of American rapper Cornell Iral Haynes Jr.
 * Don Nelson (born 1940), American former basketball coach and player nicknamed "Nellie"

Fictional characters

 * Nellie Bertram, a character from The Office (U.S.), played by Catherine Tate
 * Nelly Dean, in Emily Brontë's novel Wuthering Heights
 * Nellie Oleson, from the Little House on the Prairie children's books and TV series
 * Nellie Pledge, a fictional character in the Granada Television series Nearest and Dearest, played by Hylda Baker
 * Nellie Brie, from the film An American Tail: The Mystery of the Night Monster
 * Nellie Crain, from the Netflix limited series The Haunting of Hill House (TV series), played by Victoria Pedretti
 * Nellie Gray, ally of The Avenger
 * Nellie Forbush, heroine of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific
 * Nellie O'Malley, a character from the American Girl series
 * Nellie, subject of the 1956 song "Nellie the Elephant" and Nellie the Elephant (TV series)
 * Nelly, the legal guardian and 'aunt' to Vladimir Tod in The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod written by Heather Brewer
 * Nelliel Tu Odelschwanck, known as Nel Tu, a small, good-natured, character in the manga Bleach
 * Nel Rawlison, in Henryk Sienkiewicz's novel In Desert and Wilderness