Head to head · Girls' names
Bella vs Savannah
#136 vs #135 in 2025 · both stepping back from its peak
Savannah is a whisker ahead (#135 vs #136 in 2025) and both are stepping back from its peak. The records will not split these two — sound, story and your own last name will.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
The tale of the tape
On the charts, Savannah leads 4 measures of 6; Bella leads 0.
Ranks, counts and years are measured in the official US birth record; the classroom and living figures are estimates computed from it. The dot marks the side each measure favours on the charts — more common, not better.
What the records say
146 years of US births, drawn on one scale
Two curves, one scale
Who owned which decade
- 1880s: Bella #422, Savannah #378 — Savannah higher
- 1890s: Bella #425, Savannah #455 — Bella higher
- 1900s: Bella #458, Savannah #519 — Bella higher
- 1910s: Bella #449, Savannah #734 — Bella higher
- 1920s: Bella #644, Savannah #911 — Bella higher
- 1930s: Bella #1295, Savannah #1088 — Savannah higher
- 1940s: Bella #1898, Savannah #1342 — Savannah higher
- 1950s: Bella #1929, Savannah #1876 — Savannah higher
- 1960s: Bella #2663, Savannah #3210 — Bella higher
- 1970s: Bella #3109, Savannah #3176 — Bella higher
- 1980s: Bella #4132, Savannah #735 — Savannah higher
- 1990s: Bella #2105, Savannah #95 — Savannah higher
- 2000s: Bella #309, Savannah #37 — Savannah higher
- 2010s: Bella #59, Savannah #42 — Savannah higher
- 2020s: Bella #95, Savannah #91 — Savannah higher
Savannah stood higher in 9 of 15 decades; Savannah has held the lead since the 1980s.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Bella | Savannah |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | #422 | #378 |
| 1890s | #425 | #455 |
| 1900s | #458 | #519 |
| 1910s | #449 | #734 |
| 1920s | #644 | #911 |
| 1930s | #1295 | #1088 |
| 1940s | #1898 | #1342 |
| 1950s | #1929 | #1876 |
| 1960s | #2663 | #3210 |
| 1970s | #3109 | #3176 |
| 1980s | #4132 | #735 |
| 1990s | #2105 | #95 |
| 2000s | #309 | #37 |
| 2010s | #59 | #42 |
| 2020s | #95 | #91 |
Average national rank across each decade. A dash means the name sat outside the recorded top of that decade.
Around the world
Bella
- England & Wales#76
Savannah
Not charting outside the US.
National statistics offices, latest published year.
The names themselves
Meaning, roots, sound and the people who carried each
Where each name comes from
Bella
beautiful (Italian and Spanish)
As a standalone word-name, Bella means beautiful. As a short form the meaning follows its parent: Isabella comes through Isabel from Hebrew Elisheva, usually read as God is my oath, while Arabella's origin is genuinely unsettled. So a Bella may be carrying either the adjective or the abbreviation, and both are correct.
Elizabeth → Isabel → Isabella → Bella
How it traveled
Latin bellus, meaning pretty or fine, gave Italian and Spanish their word bella, and that word has served as an affectionate name in southern Europe for centuries. In English it arrived by a second road as well: Elizabeth became Isabel in medieval Spain and France, Isabel grew into Isabella, and Isabella was clipped at the front to Bella — the same trick that produced Bettina and Elsa from the same long ancestor.
Savannah
open grassland — or the name English colonists used for the Shawnee people
Two routes compete. One runs through the word: Taíno zabana, recorded by Spanish writers in the Caribbean in the early sixteenth century, became Spanish sabana and then English savanna, a treeless plain. The other traces the Savannah River's name to the Shawnee, whom English colonists in the Southeast wrote down as 'Savannah'. Both are serious; what is unsettled is which one gave the river its name.
zabana (Taíno) → sabana (Spanish) → savanna (English) → Savannah (Georgia city) → Savannah
How it traveled
The word came before the name. Spanish chroniclers in the Caribbean took zabana from the Taíno for flat, treeless grassland, and it traveled into Spanish as sabana and into English as savanna.
Where a reading is contested the note says so — this page does not turn a guess into a fact. The chain is each name's recorded forms, oldest first; the story is its opening, told in full on the name's own page.
Out loud, and in short
Bella
BEL-uh
Stress on the first syllable. Italian and Spanish speakers give the double l a slightly longer hold, but the English pronunciation is the same two beats and needs no correcting.
- Bells — The usual informal shortening among friends and family; not used as a given name.
- Belle — Interchanged with Bella in casual use, and a standalone given name in its own right.
- Bee — Initial-based pet form, used at home rather than on paper.
- Bella Boo — A family-only elaboration, typical of the toddler years.
Savannah
suh-VAN-uh
Three syllables, stress in the middle. The final h is silent — it is purely a spelling matter, and the h-less Savanna is read exactly the same way.
- Sav — The everyday clip, used by friends and family; rarely written on anything formal.
- Savvy — Common in childhood and among close family; some keep it into adulthood.
- Vanna — Taken from the middle of the name; also exists on its own as a given name.
- Anna — Sits inside the spelling and is occasionally used as a quieter alternative.
Who has carried each name
Bella
Bella Hadid (b. 1996) — One of the world's most in-demand supermodels
Bella Abzug (b. 1920) — Trailblazing congresswoman famous for her hats
Savannah
No documented entry for Savannah yet.
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
Is it right for you
The differences that decide it, laid out by what you want
Choose by what you want
Choose Bella if you want…
- a name with fewer syllablesBella is 2 syllables to Savannah's 3
- a name that charts abroad tooBella is on the national lists of England & Wales
Choose Savannah if you want…
- a name with more sound in itSavannah runs 3 syllables, Bella 2
Each line is a measured difference between the two names — a rank, a count, a recorded form — never a judgement of either. Save the one that answers your question; it lands on your shortlist.
The trade-offs, name by name
Bella
Strengths
- Short, fully phonetic and recognized in English, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese — almost never misspelled or mispronounced anywhere.
- Already a nickname, so it needs no shortening; it also works in reverse, with Isabella or Arabella on the birth certificate and Bella every day.
- Charts in England and Wales as well as the US, so it travels without translation.
To consider
- For anyone who grew up with Twilight, Bella Swan will be the first association. That link is fading as the books age, but it is still the strongest cultural echo the name has.
- People will often assume it is short for Isabella and ask for the long version. Worth deciding in advance which answer you want to give.
- Bella is one of the most common dog names in the English-speaking world. In practice this rarely causes anything worse than a moment at the park, but it is fair to know.
Savannah
Strengths
- Spelled the way it sounds for English speakers, and already familiar as both a city and a dictionary word — it rarely has to be explained.
- Two well-worn short forms, Sav and Savvy, both in real use without anyone having to invent them.
- The middle-syllable stress and soft ending sit easily against short, single-syllable surnames.
To consider
- It carries the American South with it — Georgia specifically. That is charming to many people and simply geographic to others, but it is part of the name wherever it goes.
- Savanna and Savannah are both in circulation, so expect to spell it out or correct the missing h now and then.
- It rose quickly and has begun easing back, which means it reads to some ears as belonging to a particular generation of young women rather than to grandmothers or to newborns.
Documented properties of each name — how it spells, travels and shortens — not opinions about the child.
With your last name
Say both in full. The notes are facts about letters and sound — a rhyme, a shared initial, the monogram — not a verdict on either name.
Type a last name to hear Bella and Savannah in full.
Weighing the whole shortlist? Run the full comparison — up to eight names with your last name, initials, classroom projections and a printable report.
Decide together
Nobody names a baby alone
Still torn between Bella and Savannah?
Put both to the vote.
One link to your partner, your parents, your sister. Each of them gets the two names, a one-tap answer and room to say why — and every reply lands in one place.
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More than two in the running? Settle it with a bracket or run the full comparison with your last name.
More head-to-heads
Same measures, different pair. Sixty more are dealt daily in the arena.
Lists that carry both names
- Beloved classics quietly disappearing
- The sweet spot: familiar but not everywhere
- Names with a double letter
- all guides
Every list here names both Bella and Savannah — the same style, ranked by the same records.
Bella or Savannah — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Bella or Savannah?
- Savannah, in 2025: Savannah ranked #135 with 2,141 babies; Bella ranked #136 with 2,129 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Bella or Savannah?
- Neither is rising. Over the last five years Bella moved down 73 places; Savannah moved down 68 places.
- Which is the older name, Bella or Savannah?
- The US record cannot say: both were already in use when it began in 1880.
- How many people are named Bella and Savannah?
- About 78,500 people named Bella are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 187,000 people named Savannah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Bellas or Savannahs in the classroom?
- Bella will almost certainly be the only one in school. Savannah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
US figures from the Social Security Administration, 1880–2025; international figures from national statistics agencies. Votes are battle voters on this site, not the birth record. Data & methodology
Keep playing
Sixty more head-to-heads are dealt in the arena every day — or line up Bella, Savannah and the rest of your shortlist with your last name in one printable report.
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