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Estela

#1,624 in 2025Girls' name

Form of Estelle

Estela has been given to 9,147 babies in the U.S. since 1903. In 2025 it ranked #1,624 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 2022, with 134 recorded.

Babies named Estela, 2025

1 in 25,900

Estela over time, 1880–2025

Girls
05010015018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Estela: meaning, origin, and history

Form of Estelle

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Estela means

Estela is a form of Estelle.

Meaning behind the documented name family

The name developed through Estela → Estelle. The family’s meaning is “star”, recorded in English with the source elements estela.

Origin, language, and formation

Estela is used in Occitan and Spanish.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Estelle and Estella.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Spanish, Estela is pronounced /esˈtela/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 9,147 girls were recorded with the name Estela between 1903 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 134 in 2022; its best national rank was #745 in 1932.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #1,966 in 2020 to #1,624 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #2,044 in 2015 to #1,624 in 2025.

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 Estela?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 25,900
128 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 12,600
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#1,624
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
17,953 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Estela 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 5002%

Put another way: gather 17,953 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Estela. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Estelas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Estela was born before 1976 — so the typical Estela is around 49 today.

Median birth year
1976
About 49 years old
Biggest decade
1950s
11.0% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
25.5%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
6,975
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1950s — 11.0% of all recorded uses (1,007).

Is Estela 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
+133
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
+342
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
+420
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
1.33×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
95.5%
Peak was 2022 (134)
Years since peak
3
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
15.2% average annual change
Best rank ever
#745
1932

Spellings of Estela

Estela is not the most common spelling — Stella is, with 56.3% against Estela's 2.5%.

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 Estela is used

Across 2016–2025, Estela was most concentrated in California — about 1 in 5,882 girls, against 1 in 12,544 across all states with data. It was least common in New Jersey (1 in 100,000).

117 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in 5,882
  2. 2Texas1 in 8,333
  3. 3Florida1 in 16,667
  4. 4Arizona1 in 25,000
  5. 5North Carolina1 in 25,000
  6. 6Oregon1 in 25,000
  7. 7Alabama1 in 33,333
  8. 8Colorado1 in 50,000

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.

Estela around the world

Where Estela 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.

  • England & Wales
    2004–2023
    #4,710
    in 2023
  • Ireland
    2010–2019
    #871
    in 2019
  • France
    1967–2024
    #6,310
    in 2024
  • Canada
    2008–2023
    #2,973
    in 2023

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Central Statistics Office, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques and Statistics Canada. ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CSO data under CC BY 4.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Notable people named Estela

People whose public names include Estela, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Estela in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Estela. Linked forms have their own page here.

StelaStellaEstellaEstelleEsthelaZvezdaEstrela

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Estela by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#1,624
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 342
Best rank ever
#745
1932
Peak year
2022
134 that year
First recorded
1903
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
9,147
Count in 2025
128

Names similar to Estela

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

EsthelaEsterEstefanyGiselaEstellMarcelaEstrellaArielaManuelaEstaEstefaniMarielaEstellaIsabelaKaelaAdelaIselaMicaelaEstefaniaEstelleLeelaTamelaMikaelaMarisela

Names with a curve like Estela

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Estela, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

EvangelinaRosarioAidaGeorginaJosefinaJuanaLinneaOfeliaElviaJoellaLucilaSusanna

Sibling names for Estela

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 Estela

Top names of 2022, Estela's peak yearThe 2020s in fullOther names that peaked in 1932Girls' names starting with EOccitan Girl NamesOccitan NamesUncommon Spanish Girl Names