Nela
About 597 American babies have been named Nela since 1903, most of them around 2019. In 2025 it ranked 8,362nd. About 440 Nelas are alive in the United States today, and half of them are over 12.
Popularity, 1880–2025
girls named Nela
By the numbers
- Total US births
- 597
- Estimated living today
- 440
- Median age today
- 12
- Peak year
- 2019
- Best rank
- 4,909th
- Rank in 2025
- 8,362nd
- First recorded
- 1903
How old the living Nelas are
born that year still alive today
Of the 597 babies given the name since 1903, about 440 are alive — 73 in every hundred. The dotted line is the median: half were born before 2013 and half after.
An estimate, not a count. SSA births aged forward through SSA cohort life tables, which know nothing about who left the country or arrived in it — so for a name that mostly came to America rather than being born in it, this is a floor rather than a figure. Where you fall among living Americans.
Notable Nelas
- Nela Pocisková (born 1990)Slovak actress and singer
- Nela The Little Reporter (born 2006)Nela (born in 2005) – traveler, author of travel books and TV programs
- Nela Eržišnik (1922–2007)Croatian actress and comedian
- Nela Martínez (1912–2004)Ecuadorian communist, political militant, activist, and writer
- Nela Hasanbegović (born 1984)Bosnian artist
People named Nela with articles in the most Wikipedia languages. Data from Wikidata (CC0).
Where Nela is most common
Total births recorded in each state since 1910. Browse names by state.
Names of 2019
The most popular girls’ names the year Nela peaked:
Nela elsewhere
| Country | Spelling | Births | Best rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Poland girls | Nela | 19,491 birth registrations | 28th |
| England and Wales girls | Nela | 862 | 513th |
| Switzerland girls | Nela | 350 | 228th |
| France girls | Nela +1 spelling | 180 | 2,515th |
| Ireland girls | Nela | 147 | 299th |
| Belgium girls | Nela | 83 | 759th |
| Scotland girls | Nela | 69 | 348th |
| Northern Ireland girls | Nela | 11 | 298th |
Counts come from each country's own records and are not comparable with the US figures above, which cover different years and a different definition of a recorded name. Where a country writes the name several ways, the spellings are added together and the most common is shown. A row marked name registrations is counting something else: Portugal ranks each of a child's two given names separately, so a girl registered Maria Leonor is in both the Maria row and the Leonor row, and that figure is not a number of children.
Nela: births by region
| Region | Country | Spelling | Births | Share of the region | Best rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| German girls | Switzerland | Nela | 319 | 0.026% | 164th |
| French girls | Switzerland | Nela | 29 | 0.007% | 354th |
| Italian girls | Switzerland | Nela | 1 | 0.002% | 162nd |
| Romansh girls | Switzerland | Nela | 1 | 0.027% | 8th |
Parts of a country counted above, not extra births. The share is what makes the regions comparable: they differ in size by a factor of three hundred.
By canton, Nela is most concentrated in Thurgau, where 0.05% of children were given it – 28 of them.
Nela: rank by region
In 2025, Nela was given 5 times or more in 1 region of Belgium.
| Region | Spelling | Place | Children |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flanders | Nela | 753 | 6 |
In 2025, Nela was given 2 times or more in 16 regions of Poland.
| Region | Spelling | Place | Children |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dolnośląskie | Nela | 20 | 133 |
| Kujawsko-Pomorskie | Nela | 30 | 59 |
| Lubelskie | Nela | 28 | 77 |
| Lubuskie | Nela | 17 | 47 |
| Łódzkie | Nela | 19 | 128 |
| Małopolskie | Nela | 30 | 153 |
| Mazowieckie | Nela | 24 | 257 |
| Opolskie | Nela | 22 | 40 |
| Podkarpackie | Nela | 21 | 102 |
| Podlaskie | Nela | 26 | 50 |
| Pomorskie | Nela | 25 | 106 |
| Śląskie | Nela | 27 | 135 |
| Świętokrzyskie | Nela | 19 | 54 |
| Warmińsko-Mazurskie | Nela | 22 | 59 |
| Wielkopolskie | Nela | 30 | 130 |
| Zachodniopomorskie | Nela | 20 | 74 |
Each of these is the top of a list the statistics office cut off somewhere – Belgium below 5 children, Poland below 2 children – and published nothing after. So a region missing here is one where the name fell outside what was published, not one where it went unused. Places are shared where names tie, and the further down a list a place is, the more names can share it.
Nela by city
| City | Years | Births | Best rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Berlin girls | 2017–2023 | 52 | 203rd |
One city over a few years, so these are much smaller numbers than the national ones above and not comparable with them.
Nela among the living
How many people each country's register counts under the name, rather than how many were given it in any one year. Each register was read on one date, and they are not the same date.
| Country | Spelling | First forename | Any forename |
|---|---|---|---|
| Finland girls | Nela | 23 | 26 |
A count of people on a register – Finland on 4 August 2026 – and not of births, so it cannot be compared with the figures above. Names with very few bearers are withheld, and a dash in the first-forename column means the register would not say rather than that nobody goes by it.
Where Nela lives in Spain
Not a count of births but of people: 761 women called Nela were living in Spain on 1 January 2025, of every age, born in any year. Where they live is not spread evenly.
Women: the provinces where it is densest
| Province | Spelling | People | Per thousand | Place there |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Asturias | Nela | 108 | 0.204 | 486 |
| Castellón/Castelló | Nela | 29 | 0.092 | 835 |
| Huelva | Nela | 19 | 0.070 | 929 |
| Valencia/València | Nela | 88 | 0.062 | 944 |
| Guadalajara | Nela | 8 | 0.057 | 1,039 |
| Almería | Nela | 19 | 0.050 | 1,255 |
Listed in 33 of Spain's 52 provinces. In the other 19 it is either held by fewer than 5 people – the point below which the source withholds a name – or it fell past the 5,000 names the source will print for one province. Neither means nobody there is called it. The rate is the source's own, not a share worked out here.
Related names
Nela against another name
Two names on one chart, with the year one overtook the other.
Try it on yourself
Source: US Social Security Administration, national and state baby-name files, 1880–2025. Counts include only births registered with the SSA, and names with fewer than five births in a year are not published. The living estimate applies SSA cohort life tables to those births; it counts people born in the United States, so it misses anyone who arrived later and anyone who has left.