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Bella vs Bellah

American parents have registered 83,766 Bellas since 1880, against 502 Bellahs. Bella is still ahead, with 2,129 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Bella against Bellah, 1880 to 2025 0 1.5k 3k 4.5k 6k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Bella Bellah

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Bella has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2008, when Bella had 2,793 and Bellah had 27.

Side by side

  Bella Bellah
Total US births 83,766502
Most in one year 5,14442
Babies in 2025 2,1297
Estimated living today 79,000500
Median age today 1112
Peak year 20102012
Best rank 48th girls3,711th girls
Rank in 2025 136th11,932nd
First recorded 18802003
Girls / boys 83,721 / 45502 / 0

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Bella and Bellah.