Stela
- Gender
- Girl
- Say it
- STEL-a
- Origin
- Latin
- US rank, 2025
- #10,913 for girls
Stela is a girls' name of Latin origin, meaning “star”. In 2025 it ranked 10,913th for girls in the US (8 babies).
What does Stela mean?
Latin: spelling of Stella
“star”
Latin for star; Sir Philip Sidney's sonnet sequence Astrophel and Stella helped make it an English name.
Meaning borrowed from Stella. More on Wiktionary.
Is Stela a girl's or a boy's name?
Stela is a girls' name. In 2025, it was given to 8 girls in the US. Too few boys were given it to be listed.
How popular is Stela in the UK?
No girls in the UK were given it in 2025, or too few to be listed. Its busiest year was 2011, with 8 girls.
Half of all the girls named Stela in the UK since 1996 were born between 2011 and 2020, the years shaded on the chart below.
Stela in the UK, year by year
| Year | Girls | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 5 | #4,253 |
| 2023 | 0 | – |
| 2022 | 1 | #7,487 |
| 2021 | 3 | #5,824 |
| 2020 | 4 | #4,744 |
| 2019 | 0 | – |
| 2018 | 6 | #3,702 |
| 2017 | 4 | #4,967 |
| 2016 | 5 | #4,290 |
| 2015 | 3 | #5,983 |
| 2014 | 3 | #5,920 |
| 2013 | 0 | – |
| 2012 | 3 | #6,108 |
| 2011 | 8 | #3,041 |
| 2010 | 0 | – |
| 2009 | 0 | – |
| 2008 | 0 | – |
| 2007 | 0 | – |
| 2006 | 4 | #4,357 |
| 2005 | 0 | – |
| 2004 | 0 | – |
| 2003 | 1 | #5,865 |
How popular is Stela in the US?
- Rank in 2025
- #10,913among girls
- Babies in 2025
- 8about 1 in 200,000 girls
- Five-year trend
- Too rare to calltoo few babies to tell
- Same name in a class
- under 1%chance among 15 girls
In 2025, 8 girls in the US were named Stela, making it the 10,913th most popular name for girls. Five years earlier, in 2020, it was 10,245th. Its busiest year was 2021, with 14 girls. It first appears in the records in 2000.
Half of all the girls named Stela in the US since 1880 were born between 2009 and 2020, the years shaded on the chart below.
In 2025, 4,144 girls in the US were given Stela or a name that sounds the same. With every name's spellings counted this way, that ranks #67, up from #10,913 for this spelling alone.
- Stella 4,136
- Stela 8
Stela in the US, year by year
| Year | Girls | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 8 | #10,913 |
| 2024 | 13 | #7,962 |
| 2023 | 6 | #13,456 |
| 2022 | 9 | #10,377 |
| 2021 | 14 | #7,625 |
| 2020 | 9 | #10,245 |
| 2019 | 7 | #12,442 |
| 2018 | 10 | #9,801 |
| 2017 | 8 | #11,611 |
| 2016 | 11 | #9,408 |
| 2015 | 10 | #10,143 |
| 2014 | 7 | #13,063 |
| 2013 | 12 | #9,031 |
| 2012 | 10 | #10,424 |
| 2011 | 11 | #9,719 |
| 2010 | 8 | #12,270 |
| 2009 | 7 | #13,698 |
| 2008 | 5 | #17,498 |
| 2007 | 7 | #13,918 |
| 2006 | 8 | #12,415 |
| 2005 | 0 | – |
| 2004 | 8 | #11,617 |
| 2003 | 6 | #13,837 |
| 2002 | 0 | – |
| 2001 | 5 | #15,345 |
| 2000 | 5 | #15,024 |
Names like Stela
Names given in the same years and the same naming tradition, with a similar sound.
Luna Isla Lyra Mila Lyla Zara Nova Myla Bella Freya Arabella Ava
Other spellings of Stela
Names related to Stela
More Latin names
Oliver Olivia Leo Roman Aurora Emily Florence Mabel Nora Rosie Emilia Max Lucy Julian Clara Anthony
Sources
Figures from Baby names in England and Wales (Office for National Statistics), Babies' first names (National Records of Scotland), Baby names (Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency) and Popular Baby Names (US Social Security Administration). Nameling last updated them on 20 October 2026. How the figures are worked out, and the data to download.
To cite this page: Nameling, “Stela: name meaning, origin and popularity”, https://www.nameling.co.uk/names/stela, updated 20 October 2026.