Zella — #1845 US girls' name

What the Data Says About Zella

The Social Security Administration has registered 13,250 babies named Zella between 1880 and 2024, spanning 145 consecutive years of U.S. birth records. As a girl's name, Zella currently holds the #1845 rank among girls for 2024. The name reached its historical peak in 1917, when 298 babies received it in a single year.

Decade-level aggregation shows that Zella performed strongest in the 1920s, accumulating 2,287 births during that ten-year window. Across the 15 decades of recorded activity, Zella shows a clear decline from its mid-century high. Geographically, the name is most concentrated in Kentucky, which accounts for 704 births — the largest state-level total in the dataset — followed by Texas and Missouri. In total, SSA state-level files list Zella in 35 of the 51 U.S. reporting jurisdictions.

No etymological entry is currently available for Zella 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 13,250 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.