Ella
Meaning of Ella
Ella feels like a sun-lit stroll through timeless stories—short, sweet, and effortlessly international. Often traced to the Hebrew element “El,” meaning “God,” or to the Old German “ali,” meaning “other” or “foreign,” Ella has moon-lighted as a pet form of glamorous classics like Eleanor, Elizabeth, and Isabella before stepping into the spotlight all on her own. Listeners everywhere catch its soft sparkle—EL-uh in English, EH-lah in Italian, EH-yah in Spanish—yet the name stays as easy as a lullaby. From jazz legend Ella Fitzgerald to the plucky heroine of “Ella Enchanted,” it carries a whisper of swing and fairy dust in equal measure. American parents have certainly heard the music: after dozing in the mid-century ranks, Ella rocketed back, breaking into the Top 15 for most of the 2010s and still dancing around the Top 30 today. For families wanting a name that’s vintage yet vivacious, Ella hits the high note.
Pronunciation
Italian
- Pronunced as EH-lah (/'e.la/)
Spanish
- Pronunced as EH-yah (/e̞ʝa̠h̞/)
English
- Pronunced as EL-uh (/ˈɛl.ə/)
U.S. Popularity Chart
States Popularity Chart
Notable People Named Ella
| Ella Jane Fitzgerald was an American singer, songwriter, and composer celebrated as the First Lady of Song and Queen of Jazz, renowned for her pure tone, impeccable diction and timing, and masterful scat improvisation. |
| Ella Josephine Baker was a behind the scenes African American civil and human rights organizer who spent over five decades working with leading figures and mentoring SNCC activists. |
| Ella Grasso, a Democrat, was Connecticut governor from 1975 to 1980, the first woman elected to that office and the fourth in the nation, and the first female U.S. governor not the spouse or widow of a former governor, resigning due to ovarian cancer. |
| Ella Wheeler Wilcox was an American author and poet known for Poems of Passion and the poem Solitude, and she published her autobiography The Worlds and I in 1918, a year before her death. |
| Ella Rose Emhoff is an American artist and fashion designer who was part of the U.S. Second Family from 2021 to 2025 as the daughter of Doug Emhoff and stepdaughter of Kamala Harris. |
| Ella May McFadyen was an Australian poet, journalist, and children's writer who ran The Children's Page in The Sydney Mail for 18 years under the name Cinderella. |
| Ella Balinska is an English actress who starred in the 2019 film Charlies Angels and the 2022 Netflix series Resident Evil. |
| Ella Graham Agnew was a Virginia educator and social worker who became the first woman USDA field demonstration agent and later held high level New Deal roles. |
| Ella Manning was a Canadian nurse, naturalist, and Arctic explorer known for autobiographical books about scientific expeditions mapping remote parts of Baffin Island. |
| Ella Mae Johnson - Ella Mae Cheeks Johnson was an American social worker, activist, and author who gained national recognition at age 105 by traveling to Washington DC to attend the 2009 inauguration of President Barack Obama. |
| Ella Sachs Plotz was an American philanthropist after whom the Ella Sachs Plotz Foundation for the Advancement of Scientific Investigation is named. |
| Ella Du Cane was a British watercolor artist known for landscapes and exotic scenes. |
| Ella Gifft was a Black entrepreneur and suffragist from the United States Virgin Islands who founded the Suffragist League, was among the first women to register to vote there, and is remembered for Prohibition era alcohol smuggling in the folk song Over the Side. |
| Ella Rumpf is a Swiss actress best known for Raw, with acclaimed roles in Tiger Girl and The Divine Order, the Swiss Oscar submission. |
| Ella Vaday, born Nick Collier, is an English drag queen, actor, and dancer who competed on series three of RuPaul's Drag Race UK. |
