Nell

Nell is an English pet form of Ellen or Eleanor, both of which trace back through Old French Aliénor to the Greek Helene, meaning bright or torch, though the exact root remains debated. The name gained wide use in medieval England, where rhyming nicknames formed by adding an initial N to names beginning with a vowel were common, producing Nell from El. Among its most famous bearers is Nell Gwyn, the seventeenth-century English actress and mistress of King Charles II, who helped fix the name in popular imagination. Related forms include Nellie, Nelly, and Nel, while the source names Ellen and Eleanor remain widely used in their own right.