Ella
Feminine · “All”
Ella is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 351,313 girls against 901 boys since 1880. See Ella as a boy name
Ella is four letters, two of them the same, and it has been in use in English for nearly a thousand years. Two American women called Ella did the same thing in different fields: built something enormous and let other people stand in front of it.
How old is the name Ella?
Ella was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Ella alive today was born around 2004, making them about 21 years old. About 227,000 people named Ella are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Ella most popular?
Ella peaked in 2011, reaching #12 nationally. Today it ranks #29, 17 places below that high. See the whole 2011 chart.
Ella appears on these lists:
- Beloved classics quietly disappearing
- Short and sweet: names of four letters or fewer
- Transatlantic hits: loved on both sides of the ocean
- America's top 100 names right now
- Vowel names: soft starts from A to O
- Generation Z names (born 1997–2012)
- all guides
Works in French and Scandinavian families too:
Where it comes from
From Alia to Ella
The story of Ella
One Ella won an amateur night at a Harlem theater she had entered as a dancer — lost her nerve when she saw the act before her, sang instead, and was still singing sixty years later, with a range and an ear that other musicians describe in terms usually reserved for instruments. The other never performed at all. Ella Baker spent fifty years building the organizations that the civil rights movement ran on, insisted that strong people do not need strong leaders, and made a point of pushing students to run their own campaigns rather than taking direction from famous men. She is in far fewer photographs than the people she trained, which was deliberate.
Meaningscholars disagree
All, complete — or simply the end of a longer name
Two accounts compete. One takes it from a Germanic name brought to England by the Normans, built on a word meaning all or complete. The other treats it as the tail end of names like Isabella and Gabriella, cut loose and used alone — which certainly happened, whatever the older history. Both are true of different bearers.
Cultural footprint
Ella Fitzgerald (b. 1917) — The "First Lady of Song" with 13 Grammys
Ella Baker (b. 1903) — Master strategist of the civil rights movement
Ella Purnell (b. 1996) — Star of Fallout and Yellowjackets
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
How the name formed
- Alia
- Ella
Related forms: Ella · Ella · Ella · Ella
Pronouncing Ella
EL-uh
Two syllables, stress at the front. Said the same way in every language that uses it.
Nicknames for Ella
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
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 20109,884 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #12reached in 2011
- Change vs 2022
- −7.3%5,831 in 2025, from 6,291
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.
Ella in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ella in German — same name
- Ella in Italian — same name
- Ella in Finnish — same name
- Ella in Hungarian — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York. INSEE rounds every published count to the nearest five for statistical confidentiality; the ranks are calculated from the exact figures. International figures from National Records of Scotland, Statistics Canada, Office for National Statistics, INSEE. Sources
Ellas among us
people named Ella are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 276 born in 2025 was named Ella
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 Christina test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Ella's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Christina climbed just as high around 1975, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Christina's path sketches the road Ella is walking now.
Ella has held the top-100 across 8 different decades — it has never depended on fashion, and names like that read the same at any age.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Ella is headed
Ella should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High 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.
Ella beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Ella in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is short, soft and easy for a small child to say about herself.
- It is spelled identically across most of Europe and read correctly everywhere.
- It sits inside several longer names, so a child can grow into a formal version if she wants one.
- It is currently very well used, so she is unlikely to be the only one.
- Ella, Ellie and Bella are close enough to be swapped constantly in a classroom.
- The spelling is recorded for boys as well, though it belongs overwhelmingly to the girls.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Ella to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Ella
Feminine · #29 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Ellas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 227,000 people named Ella are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Ella in 2025?
- Ella ranks #29 among US girl names in 2025, with 5,831 babies given the name.
- How common is the name Ella?
- About 1 in every 276 US girls born in 2025 was named Ella — 5,831 in all.
- Will my child share the name Ella with classmates?
- Ella will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Ella
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Lainey#30 · Isla#28 · Zoe#31 · Luna#27 · Aria#26 · Scarlett#32 · Gianna#33 · Lucy#24
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Ella? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Ella and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Or jump into a head-to-head
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Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration; international figures from national statistics agencies. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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