Jaela
Feminine · “ibex”
Jaela stands at a junction. It can be read as Jael — the woman in the Book of Judges, a genuinely ancient Hebrew name — with an -a added; or as a member of the very large American Ja- family that produced Jayla, Jaida and Jalyn in the same decades. It reached its highest American use in 2006, which puts it squarely inside the Ja- generation.
How old is the name Jaela?
Jaela first appears in US birth records in 1979 — 46 years ago. The typical Jaela alive today was born around 2008, making them about 17 years old. About 2,700 people named Jaela are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Jaela most popular?
Jaela peaked in 2006, reaching #1331 nationally. Today it ranks #5722, 4,391 places below that high. See the whole 2006 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Yael to Jaela
The story of Jaela
Yael has been in continuous Jewish use for millennia and is a common modern Israeli name; English-speaking Protestants took Jael from the King James Bible in the seventeenth century, though it never became common. The American Ja- names are a separate and much more recent phenomenon: from the 1970s onward Ja- became one of the most productive first elements in African-American naming, and it combined with almost every available ending — Jamal, Jalen, Jayla, Jaida, Jaelyn, Jaela. The two histories arrived at the same six letters from opposite directions, and American birth records show only the result.
Meaningscholars disagree
'ibex, mountain goat' if it descends from Jael; otherwise not established
Hebrew Yael means the ibex or wild mountain goat, an animal of the Judean cliffs, and it is the name of the woman in Judges 4 and 5 who kills Sisera. That is a settled etymology for Jael. What is not settled is whether this spelling descends from it. The American Ja- names of the 1990s and 2000s were built by combining a Ja- front with existing endings, and Jaela fits that pattern exactly, sitting beside Jayla, Kaela and Mikaela. Both routes are real and the spelling does not choose.
How the name formed
- Yael
- Jael
- Jaela
Related forms: Yael · Jael · Jayla
Pronouncing Jaela
jay-EL-uh
Three syllables in the fuller saying, with the stress in the middle. A two-syllable JAY-luh is also common and treats the name as a spelling of Jayla. Both are in genuine use, and which one a bearer uses generally reflects which ancestry her family had in mind.
Nicknames for Jaela
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
- 1979
- Most girls named
- 2007182 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1331reached in 2006
- Change vs 2024
- −19.2%21 in 2025, from 26
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.
Jaela in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Yael in Hebrew — related form
- Jael in English — related form
- Jayla in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, New York, California.
Jaelas among us
people named Jaela are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 76,537 born in 2025 was named Jaela
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Jaela
- #5722
- Jaela on the 2025 chart
- #932
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Jaela went to 21 girls in 2025, but Jaelah is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 28, which makes it the 932nd most-given girls’ name of the year — 4,790 places above the chart.
- Jaela21
- Jaelah7
About 1 girl in 57,402 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 76,537 for Jaela 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 Sumer test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Jaela's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Sumer climbed just as high around 1977, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Sumer's path sketches the road Jaela is walking now.
Jaela 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
Jaela beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Jaela in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It has a possible biblical ancestry that gives it real depth if a family wants one.
- Jae and Jay are current, easy short forms.
- The spelling is phonetic enough that most English readers get close on the first try.
- Two- and three-syllable pronunciations are both current, which needs settling early.
- Jayla, Jaila, Jaela and Jaelah share the sound, so spelling will always be asked.
- The meaning depends on which of the two ancestries a family claims.
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What they receive
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Jaela
Feminine · #5722 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Jaelas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,700 people named Jaela are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Jaela?
- Jaela is the most-used spelling in US records — 21 of the 28 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Jaelah.
- How popular is the name Jaela in 2025?
- Jaela ranks #5722 among US girl names in 2025, with 21 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Jaela?
- About 1 in every 76,537 US girls born in 2025 was named Jaela — 21 in all.
- Will my child share the name Jaela with classmates?
- Jaela will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Jaela
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Rosina#5722 · Delores#5722 · Vaughn#5722 · Roseline#5722 · Loyal#5722 · Missy#5722 · Danitza#5722 · Margret#5722
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Jaela? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Jaela and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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