Name Awesome

Hella

Girls' name

To shine, warm, smoulder, burn, through Helene

Hella has been given to 5 babies in the U.S. since 2021. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 2021, with 5 recorded.

Babies named Hella, 2021

1 in 678,000

Hella over time, 1880–2025

Girls
024618801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Hella: meaning, origin, and history

To shine, warm, smoulder, burn, through Helene

German

What Hella means

Hella belongs to the name family reached through Hella → Hella → Helene → Ἑλένη. Its meaning is “to shine, warm, smoulder, burn”.

Origin, language, and formation

Hella is used in Dutch and German. Its origins include German.

Hella comes through German Hella.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Helene, Hella and Ἑλένη.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Dutch, Hella is pronounced /ˈɦɛ.laː/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 5 girls were recorded with the name Hella between 2021 and 2021. Its highest annual count was 5 in 2021; its best national rank was #16,142 in 2021.

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 Hella?

Hella had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2021, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2021
1 in 678,000
5 of 3,389,958 births
Among girls only
1 in 328,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2021
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
469,949 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Hella 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 2021 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 469,949 children born in 2021 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Hella. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Hellas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Hella was born before 2021 — so the typical Hella is around 4 today.

Median birth year
2021
About 4 years old
Biggest decade
2020s
100.0% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
100.0%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
5
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2020s — 100.0% of all recorded uses (5).

Is Hella 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
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 2021 (5)
Years since peak
4
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Not enough data
Too few years
Best rank ever
#16,142
2021

Spellings of Hella

Hella is not the most common spelling — Helen is, with 23.9% against Hella's <0.01%.

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.

Hella around the world

Where Hella 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
    2006–2006
    #4,157
    in 2006
  • France
    1923–2025
    #2,763
    in 2025
  • South Australia
    1950–1952
    #325
    in 1952

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Hella by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#16,142
2021
Peak year
2021
5 that year
First recorded
2021
Last recorded
2021
All-time count
5
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Hella

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

HelaniHelmieHellerBrillaIvellaHellanHeleniHellyHelanSillaMollaOellaZullaAillaZallaJillaEillaHelvieViellaHelissaHeleinaOriellaLaellaItzella

Sibling names for Hella

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 Hella

Top names of 2021, Hella's peak yearThe 2020s in fullOther names that peaked in 2021Girls' names starting with H