Arla
Feminine
Arla is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 2,789 girls against 17 boys since 1880.
Arla is a short name from a period that made a great many of them. American records of the nineteen-twenties and thirties are full of two-syllable women's names ending in -la, most given outright rather than shortened from anything, and Arla belongs among them: brief, open and easy to say.
How old is the name Arla?
Arla first appears in US birth records in 1888 — 137 years ago. The typical Arla alive today was born around 1941, making them about 84 years old. About 1,400 people named Arla are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Arla most popular?
Arla peaked in 1934, reaching #855 nationally. Today it ranks #4987, 4,132 places below that high. See the whole 1934 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Arla
For two generations American families made women's names by keeping a sound and changing a letter: Arla and Orla, Verla and Merla, Darla and Carla all appear in the records within the same decades, given freely and often within one extended family. The method is exactly the one that produces new names now, and the only difference is the fashion in endings. What Arla carries is a period and a region rather than an etymology, and for a name of its generation that is the ordinary condition and not a gap.
Meaningnot established
Not established
Not documented. It appears as a clipping of Arlene and Carla, as a feminine formed from Arlo, and as a name given on its own. Germanic and Latin sources are sometimes printed for it and none can be supported for the American name, which behaves like a member of a rhyme family.
Pronouncing Arla
AR-luh
Two syllables, stress in front. There is no other reading in English.
Nicknames for Arla
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
- 1888
- Most girls named
- 194162 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #855reached in 1934
- Change vs 2023
- +30.0%26 in 2025, from 20
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.
Arla in other languages
Strongest US states over the last decade: Michigan.
Arlas among us
people named Arla are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 61,818 born in 2025 was named Arla
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 Flonnie test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Arla's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Flonnie climbed just as high around 1911, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Flonnie's path sketches the road Arla is walking now.
Arla 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 Arla is headed
Arla should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
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.
Arla beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Arla in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Four letters and two syllables: fast to write and impossible to mispronounce.
- It has a documented American record going back a century.
- It is soft and open, and small children can say it early.
- Arla, Orla and Darla are close enough to be confused in speech.
- Its origin is genuinely unresolved, so any meaning given for it is a guess.
- It reads as of the early twentieth century, which is heritage to some families and age to others.
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Arla
Feminine · #4987 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Arlas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,400 people named Arla are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Arla in 2025?
- Arla ranks #4987 among US girl names in 2025, with 26 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Arla?
- About 1 in every 61,818 US girls born in 2025 was named Arla — 26 in all.
- Will my child share the name Arla with classmates?
- Arla will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Arla
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Perri#4987 · Giannina#4987 · Karisma#4987 · Zuleyka#4987 · Mccall#4987 · Makinley#4987 · Jayani#4987 · Mela#4987
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Arla? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Arla and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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