Nela
Feminine · “Latin Cornelius”
Cornelia was the Roman ideal of a mother. Widowed young, she refused a king's proposal, raised the Gracchi brothers, and when a visitor asked to see her jewels she is said to have produced her sons and called them her ornaments. The story is probably invented and it was repeated for two thousand years.
How old is the name Nela?
Nela first appears in US birth records in 1903 — 122 years ago. The typical Nela alive today was born around 2008, making them about 17 years old. About 400 people named Nela are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Nela most popular?
Nela peaked in 1906, reaching #1727 nationally. Today it ranks #8362, 6,635 places below that high. See the whole 1906 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Cornelia to Nela
The story of Nela
Cornelia, daughter of Scipio Africanus, is one of the very few Roman women with a substantial biography, and most of it is moralised. She was married to Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, bore twelve children of whom three survived, refused an offer of marriage from a Ptolemaic king after her husband's death, and educated her sons herself. Both sons became tribunes, both pushed land reform, and both were killed by political violence. Cornelia outlived them and was honored with a public statue, which was extraordinary for a woman. The jewels story comes from a much later source and has all the marks of a moral anecdote rather than a memory. What is documented is that fragments of her letters were still being read as models of Latin prose a century after her death, which no other Roman woman achieved.
Meaningscholars disagree
Latin Cornelius, possibly from cornu, a horn
Nela is a short form of names ending in -nela or -nella, chiefly Cornelia, Antonella and Petronella. Cornelius is a Roman family name of uncertain derivation, often connected with cornu, a horn, but not securely. Nela is also a Slavic and Spanish short form in its own right. It peaks in the American data in 1906.
How the name formed
- Cornelia
- Nela
Related forms: Nela · Nela · Nela
Pronouncing Nela
NEH-lah
Two syllables, stress on the first, short e. NAY-lah with a longer vowel is also heard. Nella with a doubled l is the Italian spelling of the same sound.
Nicknames for Nela
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
- 1903
- Most girls named
- 201927 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1727reached in 1906
- Change vs 2024
- −14.3%12 in 2025, from 14
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.
Nela in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Nela in Spanish — same name
- Nela in Czech — same name
- Nela in Croatian — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: Illinois, California, Florida.
Nelas among us
people named Nela are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 133,939 born in 2025 was named Nela
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Nela
- #8362
- Nela on the 2025 chart
- #841
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Nela went to 12 girls in 2025, but Nella and Neela are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 119, which makes it the 841st most-given girls’ name of the year — 7,521 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 13,506 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 133,939 for Nela 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
Fashion outlook
Nela 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
Nela beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Nela in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Short, warm and easy to spell in several languages.
- It works as a full name across Slavic, Spanish and Italian usage.
- It fits the revival of short nineteenth-century names.
- Which longer name it stands for is not recoverable.
- Nella and Nela are easily confused.
- It reads as a nickname to many people.
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Nela
Feminine · #8362 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Nelas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 400 people named Nela are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Nela?
- Nela is one of 3 recorded spellings. Nella is the more common one — 60 births in 2025 against 12 for Nela.
- How popular is the name Nela in 2025?
- Nela ranks #8362 among US girl names in 2025, with 12 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Nela?
- About 1 in every 133,939 US girls born in 2025 was named Nela — 12 in all.
- Will my child share the name Nela with classmates?
- Nela will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Nela
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Lona#8362 · Peggy#8362 · Leda#8362 · Margarette#8362 · Rella#8362 · Evalena#8362 · Vashti#8362 · Nona#8362
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Nela? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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