Nello
A masculine Italian hypocoristic (pet) name derived from traditional names like Nello.
Name Census estimates that about 241 living Americans carry the first name Nello. It is a predominantly male name (98.1% of registrations). The average person named Nello today is around 62 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Nello births was 1921 (53 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Nello. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
People living today
241
~ 1 in 1,422,217 Americans
Peak year
1921
53 babies that year
Average age
62
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,569
Tracked since 1911
Census
Nello in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 415 people with the first name Nello, which placed it at #23,539 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#23,539
National first-name rank
People counted
415
415 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
75.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Nello
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Nello is White at 75.7%. The next largest groups are Black (11.6%) and Hispanic (8.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Nello described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Nello at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White75.7% · 314
- Black or African American11.6% · 48
- Hispanic or Latino8.2% · 34
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.4% · 14
- Two or more races1.2% · 5
Gender
Gender distribution for Nello
Nello leans heavily male at 98.1% of total registrations, but 18 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Nello as a male name
- Ranked #11,877 in 2024
- 6 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1921 (53 births)
Nello as a female name
- Ranked #3,569 in 1930
- 8 female births in 1930
- Peak: 1930 (8 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Nello leans strongly male. 406 people counted with this name were male (96.7%), compared with 14 female bearers (3.3%).
Popularity
Nello: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Nello from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 289 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Nello by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Nello during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Nellos live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. Pennsylvania, Illinois, California recorded the most babies named Nello, while North Carolina, California, Illinois recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 45 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Nello
The name Nello has its origins in the Italian language and culture, dating back to the Middle Ages. It is a diminutive form of the name Nello, which itself is a shortened version of the Italian name Ranieri or Rainieri. The name Ranieri is derived from the Germanic name Raginhari, which means "counsellor of the army."
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Nello can be found in the works of the Italian poet Dante Alighieri, who lived from 1265 to 1321. In his famous work, the Divine Comedy, Dante mentions a character named Nello della Pietra, who was a Florentine nobleman.
Another notable figure in history who bore the name Nello was Nello da San Gimignano, an Italian painter and architect who lived from around 1290 to 1363. He is best known for his frescoes in the Basilica of San Gimignano, a historic town in Tuscany.
In the 14th century, there was a Florentine banker named Nello Bardi, who was part of the influential Bardi family. The Bardi were among the wealthiest bankers in Europe during the Middle Ages and played a significant role in the financial affairs of the time.
During the Renaissance period, a prominent Florentine sculptor and architect named Nello Torregiani lived from around 1452 to 1522. He is known for his work on the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence and for his sculptures in various churches throughout Italy.
In more recent times, Nello Musumeci, an Italian politician and lawyer born in 1955, served as the President of the Sicilian Regional Assembly from 2008 to 2012 and later became the President of the Region of Sicily in 2017.
While the name Nello has its roots in Italian culture, it has also been adopted and used in other parts of the world, particularly among those with Italian heritage or connections. However, its historical significance and earliest recorded instances can be traced back to the Italian peninsula during the medieval and Renaissance periods.
People
Nello + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Nello as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with N
Other first names starting with N with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Nello: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Nello?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 241 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Nello going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 1,422,217 US residents.
Is Nello a common name?
We classify Nello as "Very Rare". It ranks above 76.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 955 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Nello most popular?
The single biggest year for Nello was 1921, when 53 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Nello is about 62 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Nello in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 415 people with the name Nello, or 0.14 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #23,539 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Nello in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Nello?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Nello leans strongly male. 406 people counted with this name were male (96.7%), compared with 14 female bearers (3.3%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Nello?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Nello is White at 75.7%. The next largest groups are Black (11.6%) and Hispanic (8.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Nello most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Nello in the 2020 Census, accounting for 75.7% (314 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Nello in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Nello a male name?
Yes, 98.1% of people registered as Nello in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Nello still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Nello in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Nello can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are called Nello?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.