Anela
Feminine · “angel”
Anela is Hawaiian for angel, and it is a borrowed word rather than an ancient one — English angel reshaped to fit a language with thirteen letters, no r and no g. The reshaping is the interesting part.
How old is the name Anela?
Anela first appears in US birth records in 1959 — 66 years ago. The typical Anela alive today was born around 2009, making them about 16 years old. About 1,800 people named Anela are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Anela most popular?
Anela peaked in 2003, reaching #2368 nationally. Today it ranks #2895, 527 places below that high. See the whole 2003 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From angelos to Anela
The story of Anela
Hawaiian has one of the smallest sound inventories of any language, and every borrowed word is rebuilt to fit it — which is why Christmas is Kalikimaka and Mary is Malia. Anela came in with missionaries in the nineteenth century along with the concept, and it became an ordinary Hawaiian word and then a name. Quite separately, Bosnian and Croatian Anela is a form of Angela, common in the Balkans. Both roads reach United States records, and the two communities do not overlap.
Meaningscholars disagree
angel
Hawaiian anela is a borrowing of English angel, adapted to Hawaiian phonology: the g becomes an l, the final consonant gains a vowel. It is a documented loanword and a real Hawaiian word. A second and separate Anela exists in Bosnian and Croatian, where it is a form of Angela — from the same Greek angelos, 'messenger', by a completely different route. Both are real and the spelling does not distinguish them.
How the name formed
- angelos
- angel
- anela
Related forms: Anela · Anela · Angela · Angelos
Pronouncing Anela
ah-NEH-lah
Three syllables with the stress in the middle and clean open vowels throughout — Hawaiian has no reduced vowels at all. American English tends toward uh-NEL-uh, which flattens the ending.
Nicknames for Anela
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1959
- Most girls named
- 200779 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2368reached in 2003
- Change vs 2024
- +7.4%58 in 2025, from 54
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Anela in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Anela in Hawaiian — same name
- Anela in Bosnian — related form
- Angela in English — related form
- Angelos in Greek — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Hawaii, California, Washington.
Anelas among us
people named Anela are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 27,712 born in 2025 was named Anela
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Anela
- #2895
- Anela on the 2025 chart
- #879
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Anela went to 58 girls in 2025, but Anella and Annella are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 81, which makes it the 879th most-given girls’ name of the year — 2,016 places above the chart.
- Anela58
- Anella16
- Annella7
About 1 girl in 19,843 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 27,712 for Anela itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Paz test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Anela's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Paz climbed just as high around 1916, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Paz's path sketches the road Anela is walking now.
Anela sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Anela is headed
Anela looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 19% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Anela beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Anela in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A documented meaning and a genuinely interesting story about how the word got into Hawaiian.
- Nela and Ela are both natural short forms and both are names elsewhere.
- Every sound in it is easy in English, so it is said nearly correctly at first sight.
- It is a borrowed word in Hawaiian rather than an ancient Hawaiian one, which some families care about.
- Anela, Anella and Aneela all circulate and the last belongs to a different tradition.
- Naming a child angel is a large gesture, and people who know either language will hear it.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Anela
Feminine · #2895 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Anelas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,800 people named Anela are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Anela?
- Anela is the most-used spelling in US records — 58 of the 81 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Anella and Annella.
- How popular is the name Anela in 2025?
- Anela ranks #2895 among US girl names in 2025, with 58 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Anela?
- About 1 in every 27,712 US girls born in 2025 was named Anela — 58 in all.
- Will my child share the name Anela with classmates?
- Anela will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Anela
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Noora#2895 · Mylie#2895 · Vanellope#2895 · Amore#2895 · Miamor#2895 · Alyah#2895 · Alaska#2895 · Anastacia#2895
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Anela? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Anela and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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