Thela
Thela was last recorded in 1955, when 5 babies were given it; 51 Americans have been recorded with it between 1918 and 1955 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Thela by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Thela?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #6,641, in 1955; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
7 babies in 1918, the peak
Thela peaked in 1918, when 7 girls were given it, #4,243 among girls’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1955 | 5 | #6,641 | 2.6 |
| 1949 | 5 | #5,981 | 2.9 |
| 1948 | 5 | #5,968 | 2.9 |
| 1930 | 5 | #5,178 | 4.4 |
| 1928 | 7 | #4,147 | 6.1 |
| 1921 | 7 | #4,409 | 5.7 |
| 1920 | 5 | #5,676 | 4.2 |
| 1919 | 5 | #5,477 | 4.4 |
| 1918 | 7 | #4,243 | 6.0 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Thela a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Thela has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 9 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Thela: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Thela, and how old are they?
An estimated 12 Americans named Thela and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026, too few to state an age range. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 101 people named Thela (100 women and girls, 1 man or boy). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 15 born in the U.S. The Census count is 6.7 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
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 3 names spelled alike, given to 2,235 babies since 1880, Thela is the third most given (2.3% of them).
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 Thela
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 Thela and names like it
- Compare Thela and TheolaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1910sThela peaked in 1918.
- The top names of 1918The year the most babies were named Thela.
- Names starting with TMost given first.