Vola
Feminine
Vola is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 677 girls against 17 boys since 1880.
Vola is four letters with three possible parents, held in the record for sons as well as daughters. The first three of them open a scientific unit, and scientific units are almost all people's surnames operating under an unusual set of spelling rules.
How old is the name Vola?
Vola first appears in US birth records in 1891 — 134 years ago. The typical Vola alive today was born around 1921, making them about 104 years old. Fewer than a hundred people named Vola are estimated to be alive in the US today — a true one-of-a-kind name.
When was the name Vola most popular?
Vola peaked in 1895, reaching #986 nationally. See the whole 1895 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Vola
Almost every unit in physics is somebody's surname. Volt, watt, amp, ohm, hertz, newton, pascal, joule, kelvin, coulomb, farad, tesla, becquerel, sievert and gray are all people, and the convention governing them is precise and widely ignored: the unit's name is written in lower case, because it is now an ordinary noun, while its symbol is capitalized, because it is still a person. So five volts, abbreviated 5 V; one newton, abbreviated 1 N. The exception proves it — a unit named after no one, like the meter or the second, has a lower-case symbol. The rule exists because a scientist's name becoming a common noun is the highest honor the field gives, and the capital letter in the symbol is the last trace of the man.
Meaningnot established
Not established
It may be the Latin word for the palm of the hand, which survives in anatomy; it may be a clipping of Viola or Volante; or it may be one of the independent builds the eighteen-nineties produced in quantity. Nothing documents any of them.
Pronouncing Vola
VOH-luh
Two syllables with the stress at the front. The second syllable reduces almost to nothing, which is why it is sometimes written with an e in older records.
Nicknames for Vola
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
- 1891
- Most girls named
- 192135 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #986reached in 1895
- Change vs 1954
- 0.0%5 in 1956, 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.
Volas among us
Fewer than a hundred people named Vola are estimated to be alive in the US today — a true one-of-a-kind name.
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Vola 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
- Four letters with no silent ones make it quick to write and simple to spell aloud.
- It works for a child of either sex, which the record confirms.
- Two open syllables are easy for a small child to say.
- Viola, Vola and Lola will all be written for it.
- It is genuinely rare and almost nobody now living carries it.
- Nothing records its origin, so the meaning question has three answers and no evidence.
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Vola
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Volas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. Fewer than a hundred people named Vola are estimated to be alive in the US today — a true one-of-a-kind name.
- How popular is the name Vola in 2025?
- Vola is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Vola with classmates?
- Vola will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More V names
The most-given names starting with V, all years combined.
Virginia#525 · Victoria#54 · Valerie#127 · Vanessa#377 · Vivian#70 · Veronica#427 · Violet#13 · Vicki
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Vola? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Vola and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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