Erla
Feminine
Erla is short, plain and very old-fashioned in the American record, and it can be two completely different things: a feminine built on an English title, or a Nordic bird name that came with immigrants. Both were in the country at the same time.
How old is the name Erla?
Erla first appears in US birth records in 1889 — 136 years ago. The typical Erla alive today was born around 1930, making them about 95 years old. About 300 people named Erla are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Erla most popular?
Erla peaked in 1889, reaching #839 nationally. See the whole 1889 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Erla
The English side is the odder of the two. Earl is the only native English title that Americans turned into an ordinary first name — nobody is called Duke or Baron in any numbers, and the handful of Kings and Dukes in the record are mostly surnames or nicknames. Earl went the whole way: thousands of boys, a fixture for three generations, and then the feminines that always follow, made by adding the vowel that English uses to mark a woman's name and nothing else. The Icelandic side is quieter and prettier. A wagtail is a small gray-and-white bird that runs along riverbanks with its tail moving constantly, and in a country with a long winter its return is the thing people notice first. A family that brought the name from there brought a small piece of that spring with it.
Meaningnot established
Not established
Two candidates with nothing in common. Earl is an English rank, and American families made women's names out of it — Earla, Erla, Earline. In Icelandic, erla is the word for a wagtail, the small bird whose arrival is taken as the first sign of spring there. Which one a given family meant depends on where it came from, and the record does not say.
Pronouncing Erla
UR-luh
Two syllables, stress at the front. Icelandic says it with a trilled r and a clearer final vowel, closer to EHR-la.
Nicknames for Erla
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
- 1889
- Most girls named
- 192435 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #839reached in 1889
- Change vs 2021
- +40.0%7 in 2022, 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.
Erla in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Erla in Icelandic — same name
Erlas among us
people named Erla are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Erla sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- It is short, easy and immediately sayable, with nothing in it to get wrong.
- It is genuinely rare in current use while sounding like an inherited name rather than an invented one.
- Either origin gives a child something concrete to tell people.
- It will be heard as Erna, Ella or Orla, all of which are close by in sound.
- It belongs strongly to one American generation and has not yet returned.
- The two possible origins mean there is no single meaning she can claim without a qualification.
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Erla
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Erlas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 300 people named Erla are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Erla in 2025?
- Erla is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Erla with classmates?
- Erla will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More E names
The most-given names starting with E, all years combined.
Elizabeth#17 · Emily#34 · Emma#3 · Evelyn#8 · Ella#29 · Eleanor#12 · Erin#833 · Edna#2458
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Erla? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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