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Marcela

#1,554 in 2025Girls' name

Feminine form of Marcellus

Marcela has been given to 8,955 babies in the U.S. since 1908. In 2025 it ranked #1,554 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 1999, with 210 recorded.

Babies named Marcela, 2025

1 in 24,400

Marcela over time, 1880–2025

Girls
010020030018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Marcela: meaning, origin, and history

Feminine form of Marcellus

Spanish

What Marcela means

Marcela is a feminine form of Marcellus.

Origin, language, and formation

Marcela is used in Czech, Portuguese, Slovak, Spanish and Tagalog. Its origins include Spanish.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Marcellus and Marcella.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Czech, Marcela is pronounced [ˈmart͡sɛla].

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 8,955 girls were recorded with the name Marcela between 1908 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 210 in 1999; its best national rank was #945 in 1991.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #1,854 in 2020 to #1,554 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #1,958 in 2015 to #1,554 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 Marcela?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 24,400
136 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 11,800
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#1,554
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
16,897 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Marcela 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 16,897 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Marcela. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Marcelas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Marcela was born before 1995 — so the typical Marcela is around 30 today.

Median birth year
1995
About 30 years old
Biggest decade
1990s
20.1% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
40.0%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
8,477
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1990s — 20.1% of all recorded uses (1,802).

Is Marcela 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
−76
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
+300
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
+404
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
1.32×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
64.8%
Peak was 1999 (210)
Years since peak
26
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
12.2% average annual change
Best rank ever
#945
1991

Spellings of Marcela

Marcela is not the most common spelling — Marcia is, with 33.7% against Marcela's 2.3%.

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 Marcela is used

Across 2016–2025, Marcela was most concentrated in Florida — about 1 in 4,348 girls, against 1 in 10,317 across all states with data. It was least common in Pennsylvania (1 in 100,000).

123 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Florida1 in 4,348
  2. 2Texas1 in 5,000
  3. 3California1 in 9,091
  4. 4Georgia1 in 20,000
  5. 5New York1 in 25,000
  6. 6Alabama1 in 33,333
  7. 7Colorado1 in 33,333
  8. 8North Carolina1 in 33,333

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.

Marcela around the world

Where Marcela 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
    2005–2025
    #4,201
    in 2025
  • Scotland
    2024–2024
    #790
    in 2024
  • Ireland
    2014–2014
    #876
    in 2014
  • France
    1927–2025
    #5,164
    in 2025
  • Canada
    1991–2023
    #3,391
    in 2023
  • South Australia
    1998–1998
    #710
    in 1998

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

Notable people named Marcela

People whose public names include Marcela, 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.

Marcela in other languages

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

MarcellaMarcelle

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

Marcela by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#1,554
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 300
Best rank ever
#945
1991
Peak year
1999
210 that year
First recorded
1908
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
8,955
Count in 2025
136

Names similar to Marcela

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

MarielaMariselaMaricelaMarjoryMargretMarileeMariannMarlenaMarandaMariyahMarianelaMarylouMargeryMarloweMarylinMartinaMarleenMargauxMarybethMarielMaritzaMaryleeMaryjoMarylyn

Names with a curve like Marcela

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

StormyDanaeIlanaElanaRebecaSheaSarinaAnnalisaShiraFlorChristianaCelina

Sibling names for Marcela

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 Marcela

Top names of 1999, Marcela's peak yearThe 1990s in fullOther names that peaked in 1991Girls' names starting with MUncommon Spanish Girl Names