[en] Differential cross sections for α particles elastically scattered from ¹⁴²,¹⁴⁴,¹⁴⁶,¹⁴⁸,¹⁵⁰Nd have been measured at six angles over the energy region 11--19 MeV. The cross sections were analyzed using the optical model, the incoming-wave boundary condition model, and the coupled-channels model. The radius at which the real nuclear potential is 2% of the Coulomb potential was found to be effectively independent of the ambiguities in the optical potential. In the coupled-channels analysis, the radius at which the spherically averaged real nuclear potential is 2% of the spherically averaged Coulomb potential is almost identical, for a given nucleus, to the corresponding quantity determined using the spherical optical model. The absolute increase in the ''2% radius'' over the neodymium isotopes is about 2 times larger than the increase in the charge distribution as observed in muonic-atom and electron-scattering studies