Aquila
Feminine · “eagle”
Aquila is given to both — 760 girls and 141 boys since 1880. See other names given to both
Aquila is the Latin for an eagle, and in Rome that was not a decorative word. The eagle was the standard every legion carried; losing it was the worst disgrace available to a Roman army, and recovering a lost one was worth a triumph. The name also belongs to a tentmaker in the New Testament who worked alongside Paul and, unusually for the period, is almost always named together with his wife.
How old is the name Aquila?
Aquila first appears in US birth records in 1955 — 70 years ago. The typical Aquila alive today was born around 1991, making them about 34 years old. About 700 people named Aquila are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Aquila most popular?
Aquila peaked in 1977, reaching #2780 nationally. Today it ranks #13208, 10,428 places below that high. See the whole 1977 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From aquila to Aquila
The story of Aquila
Aquila appears in the book of Acts and in Paul's letters as a Jewish tentmaker expelled from Rome, who settles in Corinth and later Ephesus; he and Priscilla are named as a pair every time, and in several passages she is named first, which was not the normal order. Separately, Aquila of Sinope produced a famously literal Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible in the second century. The name was carried by English Puritans and turns up in early American records, and its current American use is very recent and given to both boys and girls, since nothing in the sound settles it either way.
Meaning
eagle
The Latin aquila, an eagle. It was a Roman family name as well as an ordinary noun, and it is also the name of a constellation. Nothing about the derivation is disputed, which makes it one of the cleanest meanings any name can offer.
How the name formed
- aquila
- Aquila
Related forms: Aquila · Aquila · Águila
Pronouncing Aquila
AK-wih-luh
Three syllables, stress on the first, following the Latin. Some American families say uh-KEE-lah instead, with the weight in the middle and an Italian vowel; both are current and the name is recent enough here that neither has settled.
Nicknames for Aquila
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
- 1955
- Most girls named
- 199133 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2780reached in 1977
- Change vs 2024
- −14.3%6 in 2025, from 7
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.
Aquila in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Aquila in Latin — same name
- Aquila in Italian — same name
- Águila in Spanish — related form
Aquilas among us
people named Aquila are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 267,878 born in 2025 was named Aquila
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Madalyne test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Aquila's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Madalyne climbed just as high around 1922, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Madalyne's path sketches the road Aquila is walking now.
Aquila 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
Aquila beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Aquila 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 a single vivid word and needs no explanation in any language.
- It works for a child of either sex, and the record shows it doing exactly that.
- It has a Roman standard, a constellation and a New Testament figure behind it — three quite different anchors.
- Three open syllables sit well after almost any surname.
- There is no settled pronunciation, so the name is introduced rather than read.
- It leans to boys without settling there, so forms and rosters will guess and often guess wrong.
- It is easily confused with Aquilla, Akila and Aquilina, all of which appear in records.
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What they receive
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Aquila
Feminine · #13208 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Aquilas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Aquila are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Aquila in 2025?
- Aquila ranks #13208 among US girl names in 2025, with 6 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Aquila?
- About 1 in every 267,878 US girls born in 2025 was named Aquila — 6 in all.
- Will my child share the name Aquila with classmates?
- Aquila will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Aquila
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
John#13208 · Vinnie#13208 · Margery#13208 · Jossie#13208 · Tressa#13208 · Erie#13208 · Bernadine#13208 · Euna#13208
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Aquila? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Aquila and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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