Akela
Akela was given to 7 girls in 2025, #11,978 among girls’ names; 658 Americans have been recorded with it since 1975 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Akela by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Akela?
#11,978 among girls’ names, 2025
Akela fell from #9,501 in 2015 to #11,978 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 6.2 to 4.4 per million.
27 babies in 1996, the peak
Akela peaked in 1996, when 27 girls were given it, #3,940 among girls’ names. The 7 births of 2025 are 26% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 7 | #11,978 | 4.4 |
| 2023 | 6 | #13,521 | 3.7 |
| 2022 | 7 | #12,284 | 4.3 |
| 2021 | 7 | #12,254 | 4.3 |
| 2020 | 12 | #8,423 | 7.4 |
| 2019 | 7 | #12,502 | 4.2 |
| 2018 | 13 | #8,164 | 7.6 |
| 2017 | 10 | #9,973 | 5.8 |
| 2016 | 9 | #10,896 | 5.1 |
| 2015 | 11 | #9,501 | 6.2 |
Every recorded year (49)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 9 | #11,001 | 5.0 |
| 2013 | 8 | #12,012 | 4.6 |
| 2012 | 8 | #12,237 | 4.5 |
| 2011 | 9 | #11,208 | 5.1 |
| 2010 | 7 | #13,496 | 3.9 |
| 2009 | 10 | #10,704 | 5.4 |
| 2008 | 8 | #12,612 | 4.2 |
| 2007 | 15 | #8,106 | 7.8 |
| 2006 | 23 | #5,715 | 12.1 |
| 2005 | 17 | #6,820 | 9.2 |
| 2004 | 17 | #6,774 | 9.3 |
| 2003 | 14 | #7,586 | 7.7 |
| 2002 | 18 | #6,131 | 10.0 |
| 2001 | 18 | #6,073 | 10.0 |
| 2000 | 19 | #5,703 | 10.5 |
| 1999 | 12 | #7,728 | 6.8 |
| 1998 | 15 | #6,369 | 8.5 |
| 1997 | 16 | #5,873 | 9.2 |
| 1996 | 27 | #3,940 | 15.4 |
| 1995 | 18 | #5,218 | 10.2 |
| 1994 | 26 | #4,012 | 14.6 |
| 1993 | 24 | #4,252 | 13.3 |
| 1992 | 19 | #5,051 | 10.3 |
| 1991 | 20 | #4,806 | 10.7 |
| 1990 | 20 | #4,693 | 10.5 |
| 1989 | 9 | #8,043 | 4.9 |
| 1988 | 11 | #6,669 | 6.2 |
| 1987 | 10 | #6,791 | 5.8 |
| 1986 | 13 | #5,458 | 7.6 |
| 1985 | 7 | #8,332 | 4.1 |
| 1984 | 9 | #6,818 | 5.3 |
| 1983 | 9 | #6,716 | 5.4 |
| 1982 | 14 | #4,946 | 8.3 |
| 1981 | 9 | #6,806 | 5.4 |
| 1980 | 11 | #5,918 | 6.6 |
| 1979 | 12 | #5,431 | 7.5 |
| 1978 | 6 | #8,575 | 3.9 |
| 1977 | 9 | #6,349 | 5.9 |
| 1975 | 5 | #9,075 | 3.4 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Akela a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 658 Americans recorded as Akela, 94% are girls and 6% boys. In 2025 it went to 7 girls; SSA lists no boys with it that year (fewer than 5, or none).
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Akela: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Akela, and how old are they?
An estimated 646 Americans named Akela and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 26 years old and half are between 16 and 35. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 552 people named Akela (513 women and girls, 39 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 589 born in the U.S. The Census count is 6% below that prediction.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 8,170 babies since 1880, Akela is the fifth most given (8.1% of them). In 2025 it was given to 7 of their 61 babies (11%), the sixth most given that year.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Akela
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Akela and names like it
- Compare Akela and AkilahBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sAkela peaked in 1996.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Akela since 1910.
- The top names of 1996The year the most babies were named Akela.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Akela alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with AMost given first.