Blend of Nell and names ending in -da, or from Old English meaning 'by the elder tree.'
Nelda is most likely a blended invention of the late Victorian and Edwardian eras, fusing the beloved nickname Nell (itself a medieval pet form of Eleanor, Helen, or Ellen) with the feminine suffix "-da" that was enormously productive in the name-coining workshops of the American South and Appalachia. Some scholars also suggest a direct Old English lineage through "nēl" — a variant thread of the same Helenic root meaning "bright" or "shining one" — with the "-da" suffix added for softness. Either way, the name reads as warmly American, rooted in an era when parents improvised musical combinations from familiar parts.
Nelda reached its peak popularity in the 1920s and 1930s, a period of widespread enthusiasm for soft, two-syllable feminine names ending in a vowel — names like Zelda, Wanda, Ronda, and Velda flourished alongside it. The name carried a particular foothold in Texas, Oklahoma, and the surrounding Gulf South. S.
Senator Everett Dirksen, brought the name a measure of mid-century public visibility. By the postwar decades Nelda had retreated into the category of grandmother names — warmly familiar yet firmly dated — and that is precisely where its current appeal resides. In an age when Nora and Nell and Nellie have all staged revivals, Nelda sits just one step further back in time, a name that feels genuinely discovered rather than trend-driven. Its soft double syllables and the final open "-a" give it a lilt that wears well across a lifetime, from childhood through old age.