Daniella

About Daniella

Daniella is a feminine form of Daniel, meaning “God is my judge.” Used in English and Hungarian, it has a longer vowel ending than Danielle and a double L that distinguishes it from Daniela. Dancer Daniella Karagach and actor Daniella Pineda give this spelling contemporary connections with television performance.

Meaning and biblical roots

The name comes from Hebrew Daniel, built from roots meaning “to judge” and “God.” In the Book of Daniel, the prophet lives during the Jewish captivity in Babylon and becomes known at court for interpreting the king's dreams.

That biblical story helped Daniel become established across many Christian and Jewish naming traditions. Feminine forms subsequently developed in several languages, carrying the same religious meaning in different sounds and spellings.

Daniella is one of those forms. English also uses Daniela, while French Danielle and Danièle, Croatian and Serbian Danijela, and Italian Daniela belong to the wider family. The double L is part of Daniella's written form rather than an additional word or syllable.

Daniella Karagach and dance

Professional dancer Daniella Karagach won Dancing with the Stars with basketball player Iman Shumpert in November 2021. Their partnership brought together a trained professional dancer and an athlete learning a new kind of performance.

Before her television success, Karagach competed internationally with Pasha Pashkov for the United States. Their partnership began in 2009, and their competition record includes Latin, Standard and Ten Dance events.

They placed tenth in the adult Ten Dance World Championship in Spain in 2009. That earlier competitive background places her television work within a longer career in ballroom dance.

Daniella Pineda on screen

Daniella Pineda played Faye Valentine in Netflix's live-action Cowboy Bebop, released in 2021. The adaptation brought the characters of the Japanese animated series into a new screen format.

Faye joins Spike Spiegel, played by John Cho, and Jet Black, played by Mustafa Shakir, in a crew hunting criminals across the solar system. The story combines action, science fiction and the uneasy cooperation of characters with very different backgrounds.

Pineda's portrayal connects Daniella with a recognizable fictional world, while Karagach's dance work provides a different television association. Both use Daniella as the full professional first name.

Pronunciation and everyday forms

In English, Daniella is usually dan-YELL-uh, with three syllables and stress in the middle. The I and E move together into the YELL sound rather than forming separate fully stressed syllables.

Hungarian pronunciation places the emphasis at the beginning and gives the name a more separated sequence of vowels, approximately DAH-nee-el-lah. This difference reflects a linguistic tradition that uses the same spelling.

Dani or Ella could serve as informal shortenings, drawn from the opening and ending respectively. Danielle preserves more of the middle sound while removing the final A.

American popularity

Daniella was given to 818 American girls in 2000. Its largest annual count came in 2007, with 1,171 births; its best rank, #280, followed in 2011. In 2025 there were 657 girls named Daniella, placing it at #468. The spelling has therefore remained in regular American use beyond its early twenty-first-century high point.

How popular is Daniella?

In 2025, Daniella ranked #468 among girls in the United States, with 657 recorded uses. The U.S. birth records first list this spelling for girls in 1951; its largest annual count was 1,171 in 2007. Rankings count each spelling separately. They describe national use, so local familiarity can differ. The popularity chart shows whether the name has remained common, returned after a quieter period, or risen recently.