Mella
Girls' nameMeaning not yet documented
Mella has been given to 333 babies in the U.S. since 1885. 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 1921, with 12 recorded.
Babies named Mella, 2023
1 in 368,000
Mella over time, 1880–2025
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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.
How common is Mella?
Mella had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2023, the last year it was published.
- Among all babies, 2023
- 1 in 368,000
- 9 of 3,314,783 births
- Among girls only
- 1 in 178,000
- <0.01% of girls
- Rank, 2023
- Unranked
- Fewer than 5 uses
- Coin-flip room size
- 255,294 kids
- Even odds of a second one
Where Mella sits on the popularity scale
Chance at least one other child shares the name
If the other children were drawn at random from the 2023 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.
Put another way: gather 255,294 children born in 2023 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Mella. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.
When Mellas were born
Half of everyone ever recorded as Mella was born before 1935 — so the typical Mella is around 90 today.
- Biggest decade
- 1920s
- 20.7% of all use
- Born in the last 25 years
- 20.7%
- Spread across generations
- Recorded since 1950
- 134
- People you could plausibly meet
1920s — 20.7% of all recorded uses (69).
Is Mella 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 1921 (12)
- Years since peak
- 104
- Years
- Year-to-year steadiness
- Shifting
- 17.6% average annual change
Spellings of Mella
Mella is not the most common spelling — Kelly is, with 15.5% against Mella'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.
Mella around the world
Where Mella 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 & Wales2023–2025#5,927in 2025
- Ireland1969–2021#764in 2021
- South Australia1981–1981#616in 1981
Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Central Statistics Office and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CSO, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.
Mella by the numbers
The raw record for each sex the name is used for.
Names similar to Mella
Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.
Sibling names for Mella
Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.