Zela
Zela was given to 12 girls in 2025, #8,850 among girls’ names; 609 Americans have been recorded with it since 1889 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Zela by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Zela?
#8,850 among girls’ names, 2025
Zela rose from #19,071 in 2015 to #8,850 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 2.8 to 7.5 per million.
21 babies in 1916, the peak
Zela peaked in 1916, when 21 girls were given it, #1,738 among girls’ names. The 12 births of 2025 are 57% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 12 | #8,850 | 7.5 |
| 2024 | 6 | #15,263 | 3.7 |
| 2023 | 6 | #15,166 | 3.7 |
| 2022 | 11 | #9,663 | 6.7 |
| 2021 | 14 | #8,015 | 8.5 |
| 2020 | 8 | #12,119 | 4.9 |
| 2019 | 11 | #9,722 | 6.6 |
| 2018 | 11 | #9,796 | 6.5 |
| 2017 | 9 | #11,598 | 5.2 |
| 2016 | 5 | #18,830 | 2.8 |
Every recorded year (63)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 5 | #19,071 | 2.8 |
| 2013 | 10 | #10,985 | 5.7 |
| 2012 | 6 | #16,823 | 3.4 |
| 2008 | 7 | #15,379 | 3.7 |
| 1957 | 5 | #7,009 | 2.4 |
| 1947 | 7 | #4,759 | 3.9 |
| 1946 | 6 | #4,954 | 3.8 |
| 1944 | 7 | #4,048 | 5.3 |
| 1942 | 9 | #3,440 | 6.7 |
| 1940 | 8 | #3,499 | 7.0 |
| 1939 | 5 | #4,943 | 4.6 |
| 1936 | 7 | #3,696 | 6.7 |
| 1935 | 6 | #4,199 | 5.7 |
| 1934 | 12 | #2,563 | 11.5 |
| 1933 | 7 | #3,745 | 6.9 |
| 1932 | 5 | #5,091 | 4.7 |
| 1931 | 7 | #3,844 | 6.6 |
| 1930 | 8 | #3,652 | 7.1 |
| 1929 | 8 | #3,678 | 7.2 |
| 1928 | 15 | #2,378 | 13.0 |
| 1927 | 9 | #3,557 | 7.5 |
| 1926 | 11 | #3,041 | 9.3 |
| 1925 | 10 | #3,360 | 8.2 |
| 1924 | 20 | #2,060 | 16.0 |
| 1923 | 16 | #2,364 | 13.3 |
| 1922 | 17 | #2,287 | 14.2 |
| 1921 | 16 | #2,377 | 13.0 |
| 1920 | 13 | #2,729 | 10.8 |
| 1919 | 13 | #2,637 | 11.5 |
| 1918 | 17 | #2,207 | 14.7 |
| 1917 | 14 | #2,425 | 12.9 |
| 1916 | 21 | #1,738 | 20.1 |
| 1915 | 18 | #1,881 | 18.3 |
| 1914 | 18 | #1,602 | 23.6 |
| 1913 | 13 | #1,765 | 20.8 |
| 1912 | 8 | #2,356 | 14.3 |
| 1911 | 12 | #1,448 | 28.7 |
| 1910 | 8 | #1,933 | 20.2 |
| 1909 | 10 | #1,470 | 28.8 |
| 1908 | 5 | #2,430 | 15.0 |
| 1907 | 10 | #1,379 | 31.4 |
| 1906 | 10 | #1,320 | 33.9 |
| 1903 | 6 | #1,788 | 22.9 |
| 1902 | 8 | #1,434 | 30.3 |
| 1901 | 6 | #1,673 | 25.1 |
| 1900 | 5 | #2,218 | 16.7 |
| 1898 | 5 | #1,972 | 19.3 |
| 1897 | 12 | #980 | 51.2 |
| 1896 | 7 | #1,413 | 29.4 |
| 1894 | 8 | #1,233 | 35.9 |
| 1893 | 5 | #1,650 | 23.5 |
| 1892 | 7 | #1,276 | 33.0 |
| 1889 | 8 | #1,023 | 44.9 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Zela a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Zela has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 63 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Zela: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Zela, and how old are they?
An estimated 157 Americans named Zela and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (26% of everyone recorded); the median is 9 years old and half are between 5 and 18. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 297 people named Zela (284 women and girls, 13 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 131 born in the U.S. The Census count is 2.3 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).
How common is the spelling Zela?
Zela is a less common spelling of Zella: SSA has recorded 609 Zela and 13,369 Zella since 1880.
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 17,254 babies since 1880, Zela is the fourth most given (3.5% of them). In 2025 it was given to 12 of their 316 babies (3.8%), the fifth 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 Zela
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 Zela and names like it
- Compare Zela and ZellaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1910sZela peaked in 1916.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Zela since 1910.
- The top names of 1916The year the most babies were named Zela.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Zela alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with ZMost given first.