Joela
A feminine name of uncertain origin, possibly a Hebrew variant of Joelle.
Name Census estimates that about 16 living Americans carry the first name Joela. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Joela today is around 32 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Joela births was 1971 (7 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Joela. 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
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Joela. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
16
~ 1 in 21,422,146 Americans
Peak year
1971
7 babies that year
Average age
32
years old
2017 SSA rank
#17,026
Tracked since 1971
Census
Joela in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 158 people with the first name Joela, which placed it at #44,091 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#44,091
National first-name rank
People counted
158
158 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
46.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Joela
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Joela is White at 46.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (27.8%) and Black (14.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Joela described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Joela at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White46.2% · 73
- Hispanic or Latino27.8% · 44
- Black or African American14.6% · 23
- Asian and Pacific Islander7.6% · 12
- Two or more races2.5% · 4
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.3% · 2
Popularity
Joela: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Joela from the 1970s through to the 2010s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 7 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1970s peak, Joela remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Joela 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 Joela during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Joela
The name Joela is derived from the Hebrew name Yoel, which means "Jehovah is God." This name can be traced back to ancient Judaic traditions and texts, with its origins likely dating back to the biblical era.
In the Hebrew Bible, the name Yoel appears as one of the twelve minor prophets. The Book of Joel is attributed to a prophet of this name, believed to have lived in the 5th century BCE in the ancient Kingdom of Judah.
The name Joela is a feminine variation of the Hebrew masculine name Yoel. While less common than its masculine counterpart, Joela has been used as a given name throughout history, primarily within Jewish and Christian communities.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Joela can be found in the writings of medieval Jewish scholar and philosopher Maimonides (1135-1204 CE), who mentions a woman with this name in his legal treatise Mishneh Torah.
During the Renaissance period, a notable figure named Joela Gerson (1363-1429) was a French philosopher and theologian who played a significant role in the Western Schism of the Catholic Church.
In the 17th century, Joela Rousseau (1612-1685) was a French Calvinist pastor and theologian who contributed to the development of Reformed Protestant theology.
In the 19th century, Joela Fortuna (1838-1914) was an Italian-American sculptor and artist known for her works depicting religious and mythological themes.
More recently, Joela Ceddia (born 1998) is a Brazilian-American YouTuber and social media personality who gained popularity for her lifestyle and comedy videos.
While not an exhaustive list, these examples demonstrate the historical presence and use of the name Joela across various cultures, time periods, and fields of influence.
People
Joela + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Joela as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with J
Other first names starting with J with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Joela: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Joela?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 16 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Joela 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 21,422,146 US residents.
Is Joela a common name?
We classify Joela as "Very Rare". It ranks above 36.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 17 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Joela most popular?
The single biggest year for Joela was 1971, when 7 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Joela is about 32 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Joela in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 158 people with the name Joela, or 0.05 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #44,091 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Joela in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Joela?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Joela leans strongly female. 153 people counted with this name were female (96.8%), compared with 5 male bearers (3.2%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Joela?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Joela is White at 46.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (27.8%) and Black (14.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Joela most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Joela in the 2020 Census, accounting for 46.2% (73 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Joela in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Joela a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Joela 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.
Is Joela still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Joela in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Joela can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
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.
How many Americans are named Joela?
See how many Americans are named Joela on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.