Ula
Feminine · “little bear”
Ula is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 1,618 girls against 31 boys since 1880.
Ula is three letters left over from something longer. Ursula gives it, Eulalia gives it, and in Poland it is the ordinary affectionate form of Urszula — the same reduction, arrived at independently in two languages. It has been in American records since those records began, and it has never been common in any of that time.
How old is the name Ula?
Ula was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Ula alive today was born around 1924, making them about 101 years old. About 500 people named Ula are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Ula most popular?
Ula peaked in 1885, reaching #695 nationally. Today it ranks #14942, 14,247 places below that high. See the whole 1885 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Ursula to Ula
The story of Ula
Ursula was a saint with an enormous and entirely legendary following in medieval Europe, said to have been martyred at Cologne with eleven thousand companions — a number that appears to have come from a misread inscription. The cult was vast anyway, and it put the name across the continent. Polish and German both shortened it to Ula, and the short form traveled to America with emigration from central Europe. Eulalia ran on a separate track through Spain, where a martyr of that name is patron of Barcelona, and produced the same three letters at the other end.
Meaningscholars disagree
little bear
If Ula comes from Ursula, the meaning is a small bear: Latin ursa, a she-bear, with a diminutive ending, which makes it one of very few European women's names taken from an animal. If it comes from Eulalia the meaning is quite different — Greek for well-spoken, from eu and lalein, to talk. Polish Ula is a short form of Urszula and points back to the bear. Which one applies is a family fact and the spelling records none of it.
How the name formed
- Ursula
- Ula
Related forms: Ula · Ursula · Eulalia · Úlla
Pronouncing Ula
OO-luh
OO-luh, two syllables, stress at the front, the first vowel long as in food. Some say YOO-luh, giving the u its English name-sound, and that reading is common in America. Polish and German both use the first.
Nicknames for Ula
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
- 192456 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #695reached in 1885
- Change vs 2022
- −28.6%5 in 2025, from 7
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.
Ula in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ula in Polish — same name
- Ursula in German — related form
- Eulalia in Spanish — related form
- Úlla in Icelandic — related form
Ulas among us
people named Ula are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 321,453 born in 2025 was named Ula
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Ula
- #14942
- Ula on the 2025 chart
- #947
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Ula went to 5 girls in 2025, but Ulla is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 13, which makes it the 947th most-given girls’ name of the year — 13,995 places above the chart.
- Ulla8
- Ula5
About 1 girl in 123,636 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 321,453 for Ula 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
Ula 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
Ula beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Ula in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Three letters and two syllables, with nothing silent and nothing doubled.
- Ursula is available as a formal long form with a documented, if legendary, history.
- It is a standard short form in Polish rather than an American invention.
- The first vowel is read two ways in America, and the spelling gives no guidance at all.
- A three-letter name gets treated as an initial or an abbreviation by forms and filing systems.
- Eula, Ulla and Lula are all close enough to be substituted, and all are more common in American records.
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What they receive
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Ula
Feminine · #14942 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Ulas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Ula are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Ula?
- Ula is one of 2 recorded spellings. Ulla is the more common one — 8 births in 2025 against 5 for Ula.
- How popular is the name Ula in 2025?
- Ula ranks #14942 among US girl names in 2025, with 5 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Ula?
- About 1 in every 321,453 US girls born in 2025 was named Ula — 5 in all.
- Will my child share the name Ula with classmates?
- Ula will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Ula
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Hester#14942 · Lyda#14942 · Zula#14942 · Zona#14942 · Belva#14942 · Lucetta#14942 · Leala#14942 · Martie#14942
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Ula? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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