Creola
Of French origin, meaning woman of racially blended ancestry.
Name Census estimates that about 321 living Americans carry the first name Creola. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Creola today is around 76 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Creola births was 1920 (67 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Creola. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Creola is about 76 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Creolas were born before 1960.
People living today
321
~ 1 in 1,067,771 Americans
Peak year
1920
67 babies that year
Average age
76
years old
1984 SSA rank
#10,744
Tracked since 1880
Popularity
Creola: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Creola from the 1880s through to the 1980s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 475 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Creola by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Creola during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Creolas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 7 states and territories. Alabama, South Carolina, North Carolina recorded the most babies named Creola, while West Virginia, Louisiana, Mississippi recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 83 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Creola
The name Creola has its origins in the Spanish language and culture, dating back to the 16th century. It is derived from the Spanish word "criollo," which means "native-born" or "of Spanish descent born in the Americas." The name was initially used to refer to people of Spanish ancestry who were born in the Spanish colonies of the Americas, particularly in the Caribbean and Latin America.
In the early colonial period, the term "criollo" was used to distinguish individuals born in the New World from those born in Spain, known as "peninsulares." As the Spanish empire expanded and settlements were established across the Americas, the name Creola became more commonly used as a given name, especially among families of Spanish descent living in the colonies.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Creola can be found in historical records from the 17th century Spanish colonies in the Caribbean. Notable individuals with the name Creola from this period include Creola de la Vega (1620-1688), a prominent landowner and plantation owner in the Spanish colony of Santo Domingo (present-day Dominican Republic).
As the Spanish influence in the Americas waned in the 19th century, the name Creola became less common in Spanish-speaking regions but gained popularity in other parts of the world, particularly in the United States and some European countries. Creola Waddell (1856-1932), an American author and educator from Ohio, was a notable figure who helped popularize the name in the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Other notable individuals with the name Creola throughout history include Creola Thaxted (1874-1952), a British actress and singer who performed in various West End productions in London, and Creola Kizer (1897-1982), an American painter and sculptor known for her works depicting African American life and culture.
Creola Ingram (1920-2011) was an American civil rights activist and educator who played a significant role in the desegregation of schools in the Southern United States during the 1960s. Creola Brown (1930-2022) was a renowned American jazz singer and actress who performed with some of the greatest musicians of her time, including Duke Ellington and Count Basie.
While the name Creola has its roots in Spanish colonial history, it has transcended its original cultural context and has been adopted by individuals of various backgrounds and nationalities over the centuries, each adding their unique stories and contributions to the rich tapestry of this name's legacy.
People
Creola + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Creola as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with C
Other first names starting with C with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Creola: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Creola?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 321 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Creola going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 1,067,771 US residents.
Is Creola a common name?
We classify Creola as "Very Rare". It ranks above 80% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,742 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Creola most popular?
The single biggest year for Creola was 1920, when 67 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Creola is about 76 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Creola a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Creola in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.