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[Opinions] Nell
What do you think of the name Nell?I’ve been watching The Haunting of Hill House on Netflix and it’s the name of one of the characters. It’s growing on me, I think it’s cute.A nickname for Eleanor / Helena / Ellen?

This message was edited 12/7/2018, 12:36 AM

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I LOVE Nell.It's fairly recent for me but I adore it all. I don't think it holds it's own as a full name, I like it as a nickname for Nella or Penelope.
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I like it as a nickname for Eleanor but I wouldn't use it on its own.
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Hi !!!I dislike Nell.
This happens because in Italy 'nel/nell'' are articles meaning 'in, into'.Also if I don't care for this link Nell seems just too nicknamey to be used as first name.
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I like Nell much better than Nellie, but I'm afraid that Nellie would happen!The only Nell I've ever known was a Nel; her given name was Cornelia, which explains the solitary L. But it's pronounced exactly like Nell.I've got Nellie relatives on my father's and mother's sides: Nellie was always the full name - not a nn for anything. This led me astray when I was in a genealogy phase!
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Nell is a decent enough name to stand on its own. I'd expect a person to be named Petronella if I'd meet someone who said it was their nickname. I don't like it for the ones you suggested bc I don't think it makes sense to stuff an N in front of a Hel-/El- name to make Nell. (same way I don't really understand why I don't really get 'Ned' for Edward or 'Peggy' for Margaret) But then again, they do at least have an -n- in them later on... I think Ellen is too short to have Nell as a nickname. Of your choices I'd prefer it for Eleanor.Annabel would work too or Marinella, Noella, Ornella, Penelope. Cornelia would work as well. Penelope "Nell" would be nice actually. I don't like "Penny" all that much.
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Annabel - I love short-names (nick-names?) that differ from the formal source.
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Looking at the spellings of the words, it almost looks like Nell is Ellen written backwards, minus the e!
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The N- nicknames came from people using the affectionate term "Mine"-- like "Mine Ed" would become "my Ned".Peggy from Margaret-- I always explain this to my non-namenerds friends as "back when there were only like 7 names to pick from, people had to come up with more nicknames, so they used names that rhymed." Also how we got Dick from Richard, Bob from Robert. Now, why "Peggy" is one that stuck... no idea.
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I do love Nell. What a nice soft-sounding, single-syllable name to polish an older name like Helen or Eleanor.
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