Graciela
Feminine · “grace”
Graciela is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 16,315 girls against 39 boys since 1880.
Graciela is grace made small in Spanish — the Latin gratia, which gives grace, gratitude, gratis and congratulate, all of them about something freely given.
How old is the name Graciela?
Graciela first appears in US birth records in 1916 — 109 years ago. The typical Graciela alive today was born around 1983, making them about 42 years old. About 15,000 people named Graciela are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Graciela most popular?
Graciela peaked in 1998, reaching #574 nationally. Today it ranks #1833, 1,259 places below that high. See the whole 1998 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From gratia to Graciela
The story of Graciela
Grace names one of the central theological concepts of Western Christianity — a gift that cannot be earned — and Gracia became a Spanish name from it. Graciela is its diminutive and is standard across Spain and Latin America. Spanish-speaking families brought it to the United States, where it appears in the registers in current use.
Meaning
grace, favor
From the Latin gratia, 'grace' or 'favor', with the Spanish diminutive -ela. The same root gives grateful, gratis and ingratiate. Gracia is the Spanish noun and Graciela its affectionate form. The Latin is ordinary and the meaning undisputed.
How the name formed
- gratia
- Gracia
- Graciela
Related forms: Graciela · Graziella · Graciela
Pronouncing Graciela
grah-see-EH-lah
Four syllables, stress on the third. Spanish says grah-THYE-la in Castilian and grah-SYE-la elsewhere.
Nicknames for Graciela
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
- 1916
- Most girls named
- 1999307 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #574reached in 1998
- Change vs 2023
- +14.7%109 in 2025, from 95
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.
Graciela in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Graciela in Spanish — same name
- Graziella in Italian — related form
- Graciela in Portuguese — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Gracielas among us
people named Graciela are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 14,746 born in 2025 was named Graciela
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Graciela
- #1833
- Graciela on the 2025 chart
- #828
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Graciela went to 109 girls in 2025, but Graziella and Graciella are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 132, which makes it the 828th most-given girls’ name of the year — 1,005 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 12,176 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 14,746 for Graciela 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 Jerrie test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Graciela's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Jerrie climbed just as high around 1942, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Jerrie's path sketches the road Graciela is walking now.
Graciela 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 Graciela is headed
Graciela 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.
Graciela beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Graciela in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The grace meaning is transparent, undisputed and about as good as meanings get.
- Chela and Gracie are two short forms, both very widely used.
- It is standard across Spanish and Portuguese naming.
- Four syllables make it long for everyday use.
- The Castilian and Latin American pronunciations differ in the middle.
- Graziella is the Italian form and is close enough to be confused.
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What they receive
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Graciela
Feminine · #1833 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Gracielas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 15,000 people named Graciela are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Graciela?
- Graciela is the most-used spelling in US records — 109 of the 132 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Graziella and Graciella.
- How popular is the name Graciela in 2025?
- Graciela ranks #1833 among US girl names in 2025, with 109 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Graciela?
- About 1 in every 14,746 US girls born in 2025 was named Graciela — 109 in all.
- Will my child share the name Graciela with classmates?
- Graciela will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Graciela
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Marlo#1833 · Kalaya#1833 · Bobbi#1833 · Alyvia#1833 · Maryjane#1833 · Mirha#1833 · Noelani#1833 · Loyalty#1833
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Graciela? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Graciela and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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