Vela
Vela was given to 17 girls in 2025, #6,812 among girls’ names; 1,082 Americans have been recorded with it since 1888 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Vela by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Vela?
#6,812 among girls’ names, 2025
Vela fell from #6,018 in 2015 to #6,812 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 12.3 to 10.6 per million.
38 babies in 1915, the peak
Vela peaked in 1915, when 38 girls were given it, #1,113 among girls’ names. The 17 births of 2025 are 45% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 17 | #6,812 | 10.6 |
| 2024 | 21 | #5,942 | 13.0 |
| 2023 | 26 | #5,114 | 16.2 |
| 2022 | 17 | #6,958 | 10.4 |
| 2021 | 27 | #4,943 | 16.5 |
| 2020 | 11 | #9,501 | 6.8 |
| 2019 | 18 | #6,680 | 10.7 |
| 2018 | 20 | #6,222 | 11.8 |
| 2017 | 16 | #7,422 | 9.3 |
| 2016 | 24 | #5,603 | 13.5 |
Every recorded year (87)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 22 | #6,018 | 12.3 |
| 2014 | 16 | #7,612 | 9.0 |
| 2013 | 12 | #9,576 | 6.8 |
| 2012 | 10 | #11,197 | 5.7 |
| 2011 | 12 | #9,686 | 6.8 |
| 2010 | 15 | #8,252 | 8.4 |
| 2009 | 5 | #20,040 | 2.7 |
| 2007 | 7 | #15,382 | 3.6 |
| 1998 | 5 | #16,488 | 2.8 |
| 1970 | 5 | #9,306 | 2.9 |
| 1967 | 5 | #7,808 | 3.0 |
| 1964 | 8 | #5,450 | 4.2 |
| 1963 | 6 | #6,560 | 3.1 |
| 1961 | 7 | #5,814 | 3.5 |
| 1960 | 6 | #6,349 | 3.0 |
| 1959 | 6 | #6,206 | 3.0 |
| 1957 | 6 | #6,051 | 2.9 |
| 1954 | 12 | #3,481 | 6.2 |
| 1951 | 9 | #3,992 | 5.0 |
| 1950 | 7 | #4,713 | 4.1 |
| 1949 | 6 | #5,218 | 3.5 |
| 1947 | 9 | #3,992 | 5.1 |
| 1946 | 6 | #4,921 | 3.8 |
| 1945 | 6 | #4,521 | 4.6 |
| 1943 | 6 | #4,659 | 4.3 |
| 1942 | 8 | #3,716 | 5.9 |
| 1941 | 6 | #4,383 | 5.0 |
| 1940 | 6 | #4,313 | 5.2 |
| 1939 | 9 | #3,125 | 8.2 |
| 1938 | 7 | #3,821 | 6.3 |
| 1937 | 7 | #3,775 | 6.6 |
| 1936 | 10 | #2,841 | 9.6 |
| 1935 | 8 | #3,405 | 7.6 |
| 1934 | 14 | #2,281 | 13.4 |
| 1933 | 12 | #2,532 | 11.9 |
| 1932 | 8 | #3,547 | 7.5 |
| 1931 | 14 | #2,299 | 13.1 |
| 1930 | 15 | #2,294 | 13.3 |
| 1929 | 9 | #3,375 | 8.1 |
| 1928 | 18 | #2,086 | 15.6 |
| 1927 | 19 | #2,089 | 15.9 |
| 1926 | 15 | #2,462 | 12.7 |
| 1925 | 18 | #2,186 | 14.8 |
| 1924 | 21 | #1,987 | 16.8 |
| 1923 | 25 | #1,729 | 20.7 |
| 1922 | 18 | #2,180 | 15.0 |
| 1921 | 15 | #2,498 | 12.2 |
| 1920 | 22 | #1,883 | 18.4 |
| 1919 | 27 | #1,560 | 23.9 |
| 1918 | 21 | #1,878 | 18.1 |
| 1917 | 17 | #2,092 | 15.7 |
| 1916 | 20 | #1,797 | 19.2 |
| 1915 | 38 | #1,113 | 38.6 |
| 1914 | 25 | #1,258 | 32.8 |
| 1913 | 16 | #1,524 | 25.6 |
| 1912 | 15 | #1,470 | 26.9 |
| 1911 | 13 | #1,367 | 31.1 |
| 1910 | 13 | #1,332 | 32.8 |
| 1909 | 14 | #1,146 | 40.3 |
| 1908 | 13 | #1,197 | 38.9 |
| 1907 | 12 | #1,203 | 37.7 |
| 1906 | 7 | #1,709 | 23.7 |
| 1905 | 16 | #964 | 54.9 |
| 1904 | 11 | #1,166 | 39.9 |
| 1903 | 8 | #1,430 | 30.5 |
| 1902 | 8 | #1,427 | 30.3 |
| 1901 | 8 | #1,329 | 33.4 |
| 1900 | 11 | #1,220 | 36.7 |
| 1899 | 5 | #1,825 | 21.5 |
| 1898 | 10 | #1,165 | 38.6 |
| 1897 | 8 | #1,250 | 34.2 |
| 1896 | 5 | #1,808 | 21.0 |
| 1895 | 5 | #1,796 | 21.4 |
| 1894 | 5 | #1,695 | 22.4 |
| 1893 | 5 | #1,641 | 23.5 |
| 1890 | 5 | #1,517 | 26.3 |
| 1888 | 6 | #1,264 | 33.6 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Vela a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Vela has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 87 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Vela: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Vela, and how old are they?
An estimated 416 Americans named Vela and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (38% of everyone recorded); the median is 11 years old and half are between 5 and 62. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 517 people named Vela (488 women and girls, 29 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 348 born in the U.S. The Census count is 49% above 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 4 names spelled alike, given to 8,039 babies since 1880, Vela is the fourth most given (13% of them). In 2025 it was given to 17 of their 55 babies (31%), the second 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 Vela
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 Vela and names like it
- Compare Vela and VeliaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1910sVela peaked in 1915.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Vela since 1910.
- The top names of 1915The year the most babies were named Vela.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Vela alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with VMost given first.