Angella
Feminine · “Greek angelos”
Angela Davis was on the FBI's most wanted list in 1970, tried for conspiracy and acquitted in 1972, and the campaign for her release was one of the largest international political mobilizations of the period. The name Angella peaks in 1971, between her arrest and her acquittal.
How old is the name Angella?
Angella first appears in US birth records in 1895 — 130 years ago. The typical Angella alive today was born around 1975, making them about 50 years old. About 3,300 people named Angella are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Angella most popular?
Angella peaked in 1971, reaching #889 nationally. Today it ranks #8860, 7,971 places below that high. See the whole 1971 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From angelos to Angella
The story of Angella
The trial arose from a courtroom escape attempt in Marin County in 1970 in which four people died; Davis was charged with supplying the weapons used, having bought them legally, and with conspiracy. She spent sixteen months in custody, much of it in solitary, before being acquitted on all counts by an all-white jury in June 1972. The campaign for her release involved committees in dozens of countries, a great deal of music, and a level of international attention unusual for an American criminal case. She was a philosophy academic who had been dismissed from a university post for her Communist Party membership, and the case became a proxy for larger arguments about political prosecution. The birth data registers the moment: Angella and Angela both rise sharply in 1970 and 1971 and fall away afterwards.
Meaning
Greek angelos, a messenger
From Greek angelos, a messenger, the word used in the Greek Bible to translate Hebrew malach and later narrowed to mean a heavenly being. Angela is the Latin feminine. Angella is an American respelling with a doubled l, which is standard in Italian and a variant in English. It peaks in 1971.
How the name formed
- angelos
- Angela
- Angella
Related forms: Angella · Angela · Angela
Pronouncing Angella
AN-jel-ah
Three syllables, stress on the first. Spanish says AHN-heh-lah with the jota; Italian says ahn-JEL-lah with a held double l. The doubled l is inaudible in English.
Nicknames for Angella
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
- 1895
- Most girls named
- 1971149 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #889reached in 1971
- Change vs 2023
- +120.0%11 in 2025, from 5
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.
Angella in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Angella in Italian — same name
- Angela in English — spelling variant
- Angela in Spanish — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California.
Angellas among us
people named Angella are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 146,115 born in 2025 was named Angella
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Angella
- #8860
- Angella on the 2025 chart
- #384
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Angella went to 11 girls in 2025, but Angela is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 776, which makes it the 384th most-given girls’ name of the year — 8,476 places above the chart.
- Angela765
- Angella11
About 1 girl in 2,071 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 146,115 for Angella 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 Drema test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Angella's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Drema climbed just as high around 1949, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Drema's path sketches the road Angella is walking now.
Angella 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
Angella beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Angella in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is settled and universally understood.
- Angie and Ella are two very different short forms.
- The name is recognized across the whole of Europe.
- Angela is the standard English spelling.
- The doubled l is Italian and looks like an error to English readers.
- The name is closely dated to the 1960s and 1970s.
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Angella
Feminine · #8860 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Angellas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,300 people named Angella are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Angella?
- Angella is one of 2 recorded spellings. Angela is the more common one — 765 births in 2025 against 11 for Angella.
- How popular is the name Angella in 2025?
- Angella ranks #8860 among US girl names in 2025, with 11 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Angella?
- About 1 in every 146,115 US girls born in 2025 was named Angella — 11 in all.
- Will my child share the name Angella with classmates?
- Angella will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Angella
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Lida#8860 · Lauretta#8860 · Dot#8860 · Bonita#8860 · Benita#8860 · Trixie#8860 · Adna#8860 · Sue#8860
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Angella? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Angella and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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