Ella

German; English

"all, completely; fairy maiden"

Ella Origin and Meaning

The name Ella is a girl's name of German, English origin meaning "all, completely; fairy maiden".

Ella is a sweet, simple name that owes much of its current popularity to the popularity of other names, from Emma to Bella to Emily to Ellie.

Ella is one of those names that just misses ranking among the US Top 1000 for its entire history, falling off the list for a handful of years in the 1980s before shooting straight back toward the top. Like many names from Liam to Finn to Emma that's easy to spell and pronounce, Ella is an international favorite, making the Top 100 throughout the Anglophone world as well as in a range of French and German-speaking, Scandinavian, and Eastern European countries.

Which makes sense for a name with parallel derivations in several different languages and cultures. Ella is the Norman variation of the Germanic Alia—itself a nickname for names containing the element ali. In English speaking countries and Scandinavia, Ella developed as a diminutive for names beginning with El-, such as Eleanor and Elizabeth. Ella is also a Hebrew name, referring to a tree in the pistachio family or in modern Hebrew, "goddess."

Ella can also be a short form of names that begin with El, such as Eleanor and Elizabeth, as well as those that end with -ella, from Gabriella to Luella to Rafaella. And it can be one of the many routes to the super-popular nickname Ellie.

Ella has long been a favorite celebrity baby name, chosen by several stars for their now-mostly-grown daughters by John Travolta, Warren Beatty, Ben Stiller, Eric Clapton, Jeff Gordon, Ioan Gruffudd, Alex Rodriguez, and Mark Wahlberg.

Iconic singer Ella Fitzgerald adds a jazzy edge. And Ella Enchanted gave the name some princess-y pop.

Ella Rank in US Top 1000

# 30 in the US

Ella Rank in Nameberry Top 1000

# 67 on Nameberry

Popularity of the name Ella

• 30 US 2024
• 67 Nameberry 2025
• 26 Canada 2023
• 67 Future 2035
• 27 England 2023
• 9 Scotland 2024
• 14 Ireland 2024
• 12 Australia 2024
• 16 New Zealand 2024
• 69 France 2023
• 7 Germany 2024
• 27 Netherlands 2024
• 9 Sweden 2024
• 5 Norway 2024
• 3 Denmark 2023
• 15 Finland 2024
• 13 Belgium 2023
• 11 Switzerland 2023
• 17 Austria 2023
• 80 Slovenia 2023
• 82 Bosnia and Herzegovina 2022
• 55 Dogs 2022
• 64 Cats 2022

20 Names Similar to Ella

These 20 names were selected by our users that were looking for other names like Ella.

• Mia
• Sophie
• Emma
• Ellie
• Ava
• Chloe
• Grace
• Olivia
• Eva
• Sophia
• Claire
• Lily
• Sofia
• Zoe
• Isabella
• Madeline
• Audrey
• Hannah
• Emily
• Maya

Famous People Named Ella

• Ella Jane Fitzgerald American jazz singer
• Ella Wheeler Wilcox American author
• Ella Josephine Baker American civil rights leader
• Ella Eyre British singer
• Ella Marija Lani Yelich O'Connor, birth name of Lorde, New Zealand singer
• Ella Rae Peck American actress
• Ella Purnell American actress
• Ella Grasso American politician; 83rd governor of Connecticut
• Gabriella Michelle "Ella" Henderson English singer,songwriter
• Ella Thomas Eritrean,American model
• Ella Wallace Raines American actress
• Ella Astvatsatryna Armenian rhythmic gymnast
• Ella Hiller American actress
• Ella Dane Morgan American actress
• Ella Chen Taiwanese pop singer of group S.H.E.
• Ella Koon (Yun na), Chinese pop singer, actress and model
• Ella Jenkins American folk singer
• Ella Polischeck American model & actress
• Ella Grayce Resnick American actress
• Ella Joyce (born Cherron Hoye) American actress
• Ella Watts Gorman, American actress
• Ella Hooper Australian singer
• Ella Copple Masar McLeod American,Canadian soccer player
• Ella Craig (b. 1993) daughter of actor Daniel Craig
• Ella Corrinne Beatty (2000) daughter of actors Warren Beatty & Annette Bening
• Ella Bleu Travolta (2000) daughter of actors John Travolta and Kelly Preston
• Ella Hewitt (b. 2001) daughter of actress Moira Kelly and Steve Hewitt
• Ella Olivia Stiller (2002) daughter of actors Ben Stiller and Christine Taylor
• Ella May Clapton (b. 2003) daughter of musician Eric Clapton
• Ella Rae Wahlberg (2003) daughter of actor Mark Wahlberg and Rhea Durham
• Ella Bailey Saucedo (2004) daughter of actors Rebecca Herbst & Michael Saucedo
• Ella Blu Jeffery (b. 2004), daughter of actors Aaron Jeffery and Zoe Naylor
• Ella Willis (b. 2004) daughter of TV personality Steve "Commando" Willis
• Ella Graves (b. 2005) daughter of actor Rupert Graves
• Ella Dixon (b. 2005) daughter of actress Jennifer Beals and Ken Dixon
• Ella Rose Gaines (b. 2006) daughter of reality stars Chip and Joanna Gaines
• Ella Sofia Gordon (2007) daughter of driver Jeff Gordon & Ingrid Vandebosch
• Ella Alexander Rodriguez (2008) daughter of baseball player Alex Rodriguez
• Ella Fair (b. 2008) daughter of singer Stefanie Ridel and Ron Fair
• Ella Betsi Gruffudd (2009) daughter of actors Alice Evans & Ioan Gruffudd
• Ella Kole Moore (2010) daughter of singer Justin Moore
• Ella Bisbal Tablada (b.2010) daughter of singer David Bisbal
• Ella Rose Dobson (b. 2014) daughter of singers Ritchie Neville and Natasha Hamilton
• Ella Loren James (b. 2016), daughter of actors Tika Sumpter and Nick James
• Ella Grace Hartwell (b. 2017) daughter of actress Keshia Knight,Pulliam and NFL player Edgerton Hartwell
• Ella Rose Brown (b. 2017) daughter of American singer and actress Laura Benanti
• Ella Clooney (b. 2017) daughter of actor George and Amal Clooney; twin of brother Alexander
• Ella Jack Silverman (b. 2017) daughter of Jonathan Silverman and Jennifer Finnigan.
• Ella Purnell English actress

The name Ella in Pop Culture

• Ella of Frell main character in Gail Carson Levine's "Ella Enchanted"
• Ella Minnow Pea main character in Mark Dunn’s “Ella Minnow Pea”
• Ella Dunham character on TV's 'Fringe'
• Ella Hart character on British soap "Emmerdale"
• Ella the harpy character in Rick Riordan's Heroes of Olympus series
• Ella Montgomery character in the Pretty Little Liars series
• Ella real name of Cinderella in some versions of the fairy tale
• Ella the Elephant animated TV series
• Ella a character in the 'Total Drama' animated series
• Ella Daniels character in the Ella and Micha series by Jessica Sorensen
• Ella Martinez character in the Maximum Ride series
• Ella Francis character in the Virals series by Kathy and Brendon Reichs
• Ella character in 'Ways to Live Forever' by Sally Nicholls
• Ella Moss clothing brand
• Ella's Kitchen baby food company
• Ella Quiere Cualto song by Joswa in Da House
• Ella Y Yo song by Don Omar featuring Romeo
• Ella contraceptive pill
• Ella Lorena Kennedy daughter of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With the Wind
• Ella Lopez character on the TV series "Lucifer"
• Ella Malikova character in the "Illuminae Trilogy" by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
• Ella Herondale Will Herondale's sister in the "Infernal Devices" by Cassandra Clare