Arabella
Top 1000
About Arabella
Arabella, lovely and elegant, has long been well used in Britain and finally made it onto the American list in 2005. A Top 50 choice in the UK, in the US in remains in the Top 300, given to around 1300 babies each year.
Arabella was used as a given name beginning in the 12th century with the birth of Arabella de Leuchars, granddaughter of William the Lion, King of Scotland. It is derived from the Latin orabilis, from which Arabella gets its meaning. Some scholars tie Arabella to Amabel, claiming that the former developed as a variation of the latter in Scotland, much like the name Annabel.
Arabella has been a great favorite in English novels, dating as far back as Samuel Richardson's Clarissa and Henry Fielding's Tom Jones, and also appeared in The Vicar of Wakefield, Dickens's Pickwick Papers, George Eliot's Felix Holt and Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure, and more recently in Harry Potter.
Arabella is the title of a lyric comic opera by Richard Strauss, and was chosen for their daughters by Ivanka Trump and Dr. Oz. A real life heroine is Arabella Mansfield (born Belle Aurelia), the first American woman to become a lawyer.
Though off its 2017 peak, Arabella is a sophisticated choice especially recommended for parents who love the super-popular Isabella but want something more distinctive.
Pronounced air-uh-BEL-uh.
As of October 2026, Arabella ranked #213 in US births in 2025 SSA, peaked at #157 in 2017, Nameberry popularity #95.
Editor's take: The name Arabella is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "yielding to prayer; lovable".
Popularity & trends
Data table
| Year | US rank | Births | Per million |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | #174 | 1,912 | 1,070.3 |
| 2015 | #194 | 1,688 | 945.6 |
| 2016 | #187 | 1,747 | 985.9 |
| 2017 | #157 | 1,889 | 1,094.1 |
| 2018 | #172 | 1,705 | 1,002.3 |
| 2019 | #194 | 1,545 | 920.5 |
| 2020 | #202 | 1,438 | 889.5 |
| 2021 | #195 | 1,519 | 925.7 |
| 2022 | #231 | 1,313 | 800.5 |
| 2023 | #227 | 1,317 | 820.8 |
| 2024 | #206 | 1,476 | 911 |
| 2025 | #213 | 1,423 | 885.4 |
World rankings
Similar names
These 20 names were selected by our users looking for other names like Arabella.
- Anastasia
- Aaniyah
- Lucia
- Celeste
- Serena
- Maia
- Elena
- Valentina
- Anya
- Evangeline
- Mira
- Athena
- Zara
- Amarie
- Delilah
- Seraphina
- Liliana
- Amara
- Rosalie
- Lorelei
Arabella on lists
Famous Arabellas
- Arabella Mansfield (born Belle Aurelia Babb)
first woman lawyer in the U.S.
- Arabella Weir
British comedienne, actress, and writer
- Arabella Churchill
mistress of King James II of England
- Arabella Steinbacher
German classical violinist
- Arabella Burton Buckley
English scientist and author
- Arabella Morton
Australian actress
- Arabella Spencer
Churchill, granddaughter of British PM Winston Churchill
- (Cosima) Arabella
Asereba Kiesbauer, German,Austrian TV presenter
- Arabella Rosalind Hungerford "Bella" Pollen
English fashion designer and novelist
- Arabella Árbenz
Guatemalan model and actress; daughter of Guatemalan President Jacobo Árbenz
- Arabella Field
American actress
- Arabella Fermor
inspiration for Belinda in Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock
- Arabella Goddard
English pianist
- Arabella Yarrington "Belle" Huntington
2nd wife of American railway tycoon Collis Huntington; 2nd wife of Henry Huntington
- Arabella Kennedy (b. 1956)
stillborn daughter of U.S. President John F. Kennedy
- Arabella Simone Eigenmann (b.2017)
daughter of Geoff Eigenmann
Arabella in pop culture
- "Arabella
" comic opera by Richard Strauss and its main character
- "Arabella
" novel by Georgette Heyer and its main character
- Arabella Danesi
main character in 1968 film "Arabella"
- Arabella Fermor
subject of Alexander Pope's poem "The Rape of the Lock, 1712
- Arabella
main character in "The Female Quixote" by Charlotte Lennox, 1752
- Arabella
Clarissa Harlow's elder sister in Samuel Richardson's "Clarissa," 1745
- Arabella Hunt
character in Henry Fielding's "Tom Jones," 1749
- Arabella Wilmont
character in Oliver Goldsmith's "The Vicar of Wakefield," 1766
- Arabella Allen
'a black,eyed young lady, in a very nice little pair of boots' in Charles Dickens' "Pickwick Papers," 1836
- Arabella Briggs
character in W.M. Thackeray's "Vanity Fair," 1847
- Arabella Trefoil
husband,hunting character in "The American Senator," by Anthony Trollope, 1877
- Arabella
Duchess of Berwick, character in Oscar Wilde's "Lady Windermere's Fan," 1892
- Arabella Donn
character in Thomas Hardy's "Jude the Obscure," 1894
- "Little Arabella Miller
" nursery rhyme
- Arabella Willow
character in Shirley Jackson's "The Sundial"
- Arabella Figg
character in the Harry Potter series
- Arabella Lucre
character in Winifred Phelps' "Temptation Sordid or Virtue Rewarded"
- Arabella
character in the 1996 film 'Far Harbor'
- Arabella Chandler
character in American soap 'All My Children'
- Arabella Whipple
Lucy's mother in "The Ballad of Lucy Whipple" by Karen Cushman
- Lady Arabella Marchand du Belmont
character in 2011 TV movie 'A Princess for Christmas"
- Princess Arabella
character 2004 movie 'The Prince and Me"
- "Arabella
" song by the Arctic Monkeys
- Arabella Strange
character in Susanna Clarke's novel "Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell"
- Arabella
the Spanish town Inigo grew up in in the book "The Princess Bride"
- Arabella Bishop
love interest in the 1935 movie "Captain Blood", played by Olivia de Havilland
Variations & nicknames
- ArabelleFrench