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I had a great-aunt Nellie who was kindly but ferocious, and on the other side of the family an aunt Nellie who was a weeping widow for decades after uncle Joe died a premature death.

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Both had Nellie as a stand-alone fn.

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I prefer Nell, if one must. But if I'd had another daughter and wanted to use a family name, I'd have gone for Helen, or perhaps Elinor, Eleanor or Eloise; but I wouldn't have used Nell as a nn so it would have been cheating.