Name Awesome

Akela

#11,978 in 2025UnisexGirls' nameBoys' name

Literal meaning not recorded

Akela has been given to 658 babies in the U.S. since 1975. In 2025 it ranked #11,978 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 1996, with 27 recorded. It's used for both sexes: 94% girls, 6% boys all-time.

Babies named Akela, 2025

1 in 474,000

Akela over time, 1880–2025

GirlsBoys
010203018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Girls or boys — Akela over time

In 2025, Akela went to 100% girls and 0% boys.

19752025

A sex is only published in years it reached five applications, so a stretch at 0% or 100% means the other side stayed under that floor — not that it was never used.

Akela: meaning, origin, and history

Literal meaning not recorded

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Akela means

Akela is a given name.

Origin, language, and formation

Akela is used in Serbo-Croatian.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 620 girls were recorded with the name Akela between 1975 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 27 in 1996; its best national rank was #3,940 in 1996.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #8,423 in 2020 to #11,978 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #9,501 in 2015 to #11,978 in 2025.

In the United States, 38 boys were recorded with the name Akela between 2016 and 2024. Its highest annual count was 8 in 2020; its best national rank was #8,762 in 2020.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Akela?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 474,000
7 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 230,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#11,978
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
328,272 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Akela sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 328,272 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Akela. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Akelas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Akela was born before 1998 — so the typical Akela is around 27 today.

Median birth year
1998
About 27 years old
Biggest decade
1990s
31.8% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
43.5%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
620
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1990s — 31.8% of all recorded uses (197).

Is Akela rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
−3,555
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−2,477
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.64×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
25.9%
Peak was 1996 (27)
Years since peak
29
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
25.2% average annual change
Best rank ever
#3,940
1996

Spellings of Akela

Akela is not the most common spelling — Angela is, with 31.7% against Akela's 0.03%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Akela is used

Across 1910–2025, Akela was most concentrated in California — about 1 in — girls, against 1 in 1,089,218 across all states with data. It was least common in Illinois (1 in —).

00 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in —
  2. 2Illinois1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Akela has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Akela around the world

Where Akela ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • France
    1962–1975
    #1,877
    in 1975
  • Canada
    2017–2017
    #2,633
    in 2017
  • South Australia
    1987–2001
    #711
    in 2001

Popularity data from Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Akela by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#11,978
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 3,555
Best rank ever
#3,940
1996
Peak year
1996
27 that year
First recorded
1975
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
620
Count in 2025
7

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#8,762
2020
Peak year
2020
8 that year
First recorded
2016
Last recorded
2024
All-time count
38
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Akela

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

AkeelaAkemiMeelaAmelaMaelaKeelaCielaRaelaNyelaZelaNelaNeelaAnjelaDelaAelaAkeraLaelaBelaAnelaAkeyaStelaZaelaMayelaAkeelah

Sibling names for Akela

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Akela

Top names of 1996, Akela's peak yearThe 1990s in fullOther names that peaked in 1996Girls' names starting with A