Vela
Meaning "sail", a name of Spanish or Latin origin.
Name Census estimates that about 385 living Americans carry the first name Vela. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Vela today is around 27 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Vela births was 1915 (38 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Vela. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Vela with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
385
~ 1 in 890,271 Americans
Peak year
1915
38 babies that year
Average age
27
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,925
Tracked since 1888
Census
Vela in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 516 people with the first name Vela, which placed it at #20,138 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
#20,138
National first-name rank
People counted
516
516 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
46.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Vela
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Vela is White at 46.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (26.2%) and Black (14.9%). 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 Vela 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 Vela at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White46.5% · 240
- Hispanic or Latino26.2% · 135
- Black or African American14.9% · 77
- Asian and Pacific Islander7.0% · 36
- Two or more races4.3% · 22
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.2% · 6
Popularity
Vela: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Vela from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1910s, with 205 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1910s peak, Vela remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Vela 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 Vela during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Velas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 5 states and territories. Texas, California, Kentucky recorded the most babies named Vela, while Arkansas, Alabama, Kentucky recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 28 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Vela
The name Vela is believed to have originated from the Latin word "velum," which means "sail" or "canvas." It is thought to have been derived from the Latin verb "velare," meaning "to cover" or "to veil." The name has been in use since ancient Roman times and is associated with the constellation Vela, which is Latin for "the sails."
In ancient Roman mythology, Vela was the name given to the constellation of sails, representing the sails of the ship Argo Navis, which carried Jason and the Argonauts on their quest for the Golden Fleece. The constellation was also known as Puppis, which means "the stern" or "the poop deck" of the ship.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Vela can be found in the works of the Roman poet Ovid, who lived from 43 BC to 17 AD. He mentioned the constellation Vela in his famous work, the Metamorphoses.
In the Middle Ages, the name Vela was occasionally used as a feminine name, although its usage was relatively rare. One of the earliest known bearers of the name was Vela von Vitzthum, a German noblewoman who lived in the 13th century.
Throughout history, there have been a few notable individuals with the first name Vela. One of the most famous was Vela Puttrich (1778-1864), a German writer and playwright who was known for her contributions to the Romantic movement in German literature.
Another notable bearer of the name was Vela Spiridonova (1865-1941), a Russian revolutionary and member of the Socialist Revolutionary Party. She was involved in the assassination of Vyacheslav von Plehve, the Minister of the Interior, in 1904.
In the field of science, Vela Valcic (1865-1928) was a Croatian physicist and mathematician who made significant contributions to the study of electromagnetism and wave theory.
Vela Shikhalashvili (1886-1976) was a Georgian writer and playwright who is considered one of the founders of modern Georgian literature. His works explored themes of social injustice and the struggles of the working class.
Finally, Vela Velkic (1901-1976) was a Serbian painter and art professor who was known for her impressionistic landscapes and portraits.
People
Vela + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Vela as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with V
Other first names starting with V with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Vela: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Vela?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 385 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Vela 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 890,271 US residents.
Is Vela a common name?
We classify Vela as "Very Rare". It ranks above 81.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,065 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Vela most popular?
The single biggest year for Vela was 1915, when 38 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Vela is about 27 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Vela in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 516 people with the name Vela, or 0.17 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #20,138 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 Vela 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 Vela?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Vela leans strongly female. 488 people counted with this name were female (94.4%), compared with 29 male bearers (5.6%). 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 Vela?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Vela is White at 46.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (26.2%) and Black (14.9%). 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 Vela most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Vela in the 2020 Census, accounting for 46.5% (240 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 Vela in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Vela a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Vela 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 Vela still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Vela 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 Vela 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 people have Vela as a first name?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.