Nell

Nell is a short form of the forename Eleanor/Elinor OR Helen/Ellen. There are two main types of such shortenings: they are convenient for writing, e.g. in lists; or they are essentially spoken pet-names, and thus informal. (See Conventional abbreviations for forenames.)

Short form	Long form	Informal or written	Other short forms	Remarks
Nell	Eleanor/Elinor OR Helen/Ellen	Informal	Nellie	Eleanor is a medieval form of Helen See also Nell - knell

There is a list of similar names at Conventional abbreviations for forenames, as well as the category:short names

Note that any informal form may be spelled in different ways. Notably, any spelling listed that ends in '-ie' may be written with the ending '-y', and vice versa.

The famous actress, and mistress of Charles II Nell Gwyn (1651?-1687) was christened Eleanor Gwyn. The heroine of Dickens's Old Curiosity Shop is Little Nell.

The idiomatic expression ‘to learn by sitting with (or by) Nellie’ means ‘to learn (how to do a job) by observing how an experienced (female) worker does it’. If the experienced worker is not female but male, the appropriate expression would be ‘to learn by standing by Fred (or Sid)’ or ’by watching Joe’.