What is the name of the orphan girl in The Old Curiosity Shop?

The orphan girl in The Old Curiosity Shop is Little Nell, whose full name is Nell Trent. She is the novel's central character and is introduced as a young girl living with her maternal grandfather in his London shop of curiosities.

Nell's grandfather secretly gambles because he hopes to secure her financial future, but his debts allow the cruel moneylender Daniel Quilp to take control of the shop. Nell and her grandfather then leave London and travel through the English countryside, facing poverty, exhaustion, and uncertainty.

Nell is often called “Little Nell” because of her youth and the sentimental way Dickens presents her. She is not Nancy, who belongs to Oliver Twist; Estella, who appears in Great Expectations; or Little Dorrit, the heroine of the novel named after her. Those characters are all associated with Dickens, which makes the wrong options plausible but historically distinct.

The Old Curiosity Shop first appeared in Master Humphrey's Clock and was published in book form in 1841. Nell's tragic death became one of Dickens's most famous and controversial emotional scenes, provoking intense reactions from contemporary readers.