Chela — girls' name

What the Data Says About Chela

The Social Security Administration has registered 474 babies named Chela between 1955 and 2011, spanning 57 consecutive years of U.S. birth records. As a girl's name, Chela currently falls outside the top 1,000 girls' names for 2011. The name reached its historical peak in 1985, when 79 babies received it in a single year.

Decade-level aggregation shows that Chela performed strongest in the 1980s, accumulating 185 births during that ten-year window. Across the 7 decades of recorded activity, Chela shows a clear decline from its mid-century high. Geographically, the name is most concentrated in Virginia, which accounts for 27 births — the largest state-level total in the dataset — followed by California and District of Columbia. In total, SSA state-level files list Chela in 5 of the 51 U.S. reporting jurisdictions.

No etymological entry is currently available for Chela in our reference dataset. These figures derive from SSA's annual national and state-level name files, which include any name appearing at least five times in a given year or state-year; names below that threshold are suppressed for privacy and therefore excluded from the totals shown here. The 474 total represents a lower bound — actual usage may be higher in years or states where the count fell below the disclosure floor. This page is provided for informational and research purposes only and does not constitute personal, legal, or naming advice.