Petronella

Girls' name

Possibly stone, rock, through Peter

Petronella has been given to 335 babies in the U.S. since 1884. 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 1916, with 19 recorded.

Babies named Petronella, 1949

1 in 581,000

Petronella over time, 1880–2025

Girls

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Petronella: meaning, origin, and history

Possibly stone, rock, through Peter

Latin

What Petronella means

Petronella belongs to the name family reached through Petronella → Peter. Its meaning is “stone, rock”.

Dictionary etymologyReferences, data & attribution

From Latin Petronella, feminine diminutive of Petronius, a Roman family name possibly derived from petra "rock". Name of an obscure early saint; because of similarity of sound, used as a feminine form of Peter.

Excerpt from Wiktionary: Petronella (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Origin, language, and formation

Petronella is used in English, Dutch, Latin and Swedish. Its origins include Latin.

Petronella comes through Latin Petronella.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Petronius and Peter.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Petronella is pronounced /ˌpɛt.ɹəˈnɛlə/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 335 girls were recorded with the name Petronella between 1884 and 1949. Its highest annual count was 19 in 1916; its best national rank was #1,137 in 1884.

How common is Petronella?

Petronella had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 1949, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 1949: 1 in 581,000; 6 of 3,484,085 births
Among girls only: 1 in 285,000; <0.01% of girls
Rank, 1949: Unranked; Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size: 402,498 kids; Even odds of a second one

Where Petronella 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 1949 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 402,498 children born in 1949 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Petronella. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Petronellas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Petronella was born before 1919 — so the typical Petronella is around 106 today.

Median birth year: 1919; About 106 years old
Biggest decade: 1910s; 42.4% of all use
Born in the last 25 years: 30.4%; Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950: 0; People you could plausibly meet

Choose a decade

1910s — 42.4% of all recorded uses (142).

Is Petronella 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 1916 (19)
Years since peak: 109; Years
Year-to-year steadiness: Shifting; 22.3% average annual change
Best rank ever: #1,137; 1884

Where Petronella is used

Across 1910–2025, Petronella was most concentrated in Illinois — about 1 in — girls, against 1 in 1,392,546 across all states with data. It was least common in Pennsylvania (1 in —).

00 per 100,000

State popularity map

Most concentrated

1Illinois1 in —
2Pennsylvania1 in —

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. Petronella has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Petronella around the world

Where Petronella 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.

South Australia
1957–2012
#871
in 2012

Popularity data from Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Petronella 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: #1,137; 1884
Peak year: 1916; 19 that year
First recorded: 1884
Last recorded: 1949
All-time count: 335
Count in 2025: Under 5

Names similar to Petronella

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

Sibling names for Petronella

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

For a sister

Era Leatha Leone Artie Alpha Hettie Cecil Ona

For a brother

Winfield Dorsey Isadore Aloysius Hyman Regis Sydney Meyer

Explore around Petronella

Top names of 1916, Petronella's peak year The 1910s in full Other names that peaked in 1884 Girls' names starting with P Uncommon Dutch Girl Names