Anabella

Meaning of Anabella

Anabella glides onto the baby-name stage like a ballerina twirling between two spotlights—Anna’s timeless grace and Bella’s easy-breathy beauty. Thought to have waltzed out of medieval Scotland as a variant of Annabel (itself a mash-up of biblical Anna and Latin-French Amabel, “lovable”), she carries a double helping of charm: “graceful beauty” is the meaning most parents hear in her melody. Pop-culture sprinkles a little stardust, too—think of the heroine in Tangled spin-offs or the romantic leads that keep cropping up in YA novels. In U.S. nurseries, Anabella has been the quiet sparkler: never a chart-topping diva, yet steadily sashaying between the 400s and 800s since the ’60s, peaking around 2014 before slipping into hidden-gem territory again. She sounds familiar without feeling overused, classic yet lightly floral—like a vintage perfume bottle discovered in a modern loft. For parents craving a name that whispers “princess” but walks “girl next door,” Anabella may be exactly the right dance partner.