Lela — #2188 US girls' name

What the Data Says About Lela

The Social Security Administration has registered 42,926 babies named Lela between 1880 and 2024, spanning 145 consecutive years of U.S. birth records. As a girl's name, Lela currently holds the #2188 rank among girls for 2024. The name reached its historical peak in 1921, when 907 babies received it in a single year.

Decade-level aggregation shows that Lela performed strongest in the 1920s, accumulating 7,840 births during that ten-year window. Across the 15 decades of recorded activity, Lela shows a clear decline from its mid-century high. Geographically, the name is most concentrated in Texas, which accounts for 3,304 births — the largest state-level total in the dataset — followed by Alabama and North Carolina. In total, SSA state-level files list Lela in 42 of the 51 U.S. reporting jurisdictions.

No etymological entry is currently available for Lela 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 42,926 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.