Ella
Top 1000
About Ella
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 has ranked in the US Top 1000 nearly every year since the records began in the late 19th-century. While it did fall out of fashion in the mid-1980s, it shot back up the charts in the 90s, and, as of 2023, it had been a Top 50 choice for two decades.
Easy to say and spell, Ella, like Finn, Liam, Leo, and Emma, 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.
Pronounced EL-a.
As of October 2026, Ella ranked #29 in US births in 2025 SSA, peaked at #12 in 2011, Nameberry popularity #57.
Editor's take: The name Ella is a girl's name of German, English origin meaning "all, completely; fairy maiden".
Popularity & trends
Data table
| Year | US rank | Births | Per million |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | #17 | 8,568 | 4,796.4 |
| 2015 | #18 | 7,917 | 4,435.1 |
| 2016 | #17 | 7,939 | 4,480.2 |
| 2017 | #16 | 8,083 | 4,681.8 |
| 2018 | #15 | 8,126 | 4,777 |
| 2019 | #13 | 8,127 | 4,842.2 |
| 2020 | #15 | 7,367 | 4,557.2 |
| 2021 | #16 | 7,037 | 4,288.6 |
| 2022 | #25 | 6,284 | 3,831.4 |
| 2023 | #32 | 5,659 | 3,526.8 |
| 2024 | #30 | 5,685 | 3,508.8 |
| 2025 | #29 | 5,831 | 3,627.9 |
World rankings
Similar names
These 20 names were selected by our users looking for other names like Ella.
- Mia
- Ellie
- Sophie
- Chloe
- Emma
- Ava
- Grace
- Eva
- Olivia
- Sofia
- Claire
- Sophia
- Lily
- Zoe
- Madeline
- Audrey
- Maya
- Isabella
- Lila
- Isabelle
Ella on lists
Famous Ellas
- 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
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