Nella
A feminine name derived from Petronella, of Latin origins, meaning "rock".
Name Census estimates that about 1,872 living Americans carry the first name Nella. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Nella today is around 35 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Nella births was 1927 (81 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Nella. 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.
People living today
1.9K
~ 1 in 183,095 Americans
Peak year
1927
81 babies that year
Average age
35
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,785
Tracked since 1880
Popularity
Nella: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Nella from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 656 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1920s peak, Nella remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Nella 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 Nella during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Nellas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 23 states and territories. Kentucky, Texas, Alabama recorded the most babies named Nella, while Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Indiana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 47 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Nella
Nella is a feminine given name with roots in several European languages. It is believed to have originated as a diminutive or pet form of the Italian name Aniela, which derives from the Greek name Anelia, itself a variation of the biblical name Ananias, meaning "favored by God" or "graced by the Lord".
The name Nella can also be traced back to the Slavic name Nela, a diminutive of the name Nadezhda, meaning "hope". This Slavic variant was popular in countries like Russia, Poland, and the Czech Republic, where it was sometimes spelled as Niela or Nela.
Another possible origin of the name Nella is the German diminutive form of the name Petronella, which itself is derived from the Latin name Petronius, meaning "related to stone". This German variant was commonly used in regions like Bavaria and Austria.
In ancient texts, the name Nella is not widely documented, but the name Anelia is mentioned in some Greek and Roman records, indicating its early use in those cultures.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Nella is Nella Barozzi (1590-1644), an Italian singer and composer who was renowned for her madrigals and sacred works. Another notable figure is Nella Larsen (1891-1964), an American novelist and writer of the Harlem Renaissance, best known for her novels "Quicksand" and "Passing".
Other historical figures with the name Nella include Nella Vučković (1909-1987), a Croatian writer and translator, and Nella Braddy Henney (1899-1984), an American lawyer and civil rights activist who fought for women's rights and racial equality.
In the realm of literature, the name Nella appears in several works, such as the character Nella in the novel "The Mill on the Floss" by George Eliot, and the protagonist Nella in the children's book series "Nella the Princess Knight" by Christine Ricci.
People
Nella + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Nella as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with N
Other first names starting with N with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Nella: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Nella?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,872 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Nella 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 183,095 US residents.
Is Nella a common name?
We classify Nella as "Rare". It ranks above 93.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,314 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Nella most popular?
The single biggest year for Nella was 1927, when 81 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Nella is about 35 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Nella a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Nella 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.