Vela
#6,812 in 2025Girls' nameMeaning not yet documented
Vela has been given to 1,082 babies in the U.S. since 1888. In 2025 it ranked #6,812 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 1915, with 38 recorded.
Babies named Vela, 2025
1 in 195,000
Vela 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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.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 Vela?
Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.
- Among all babies, 2025
- 1 in 195,000
- 17 of 3,315,165 births
- Among girls only
- 1 in 94,500
- <0.01% of girls
- Rank, 2025
- #6,812
- of 17,293 girls’ names in use
- Coin-flip room size
- 135,172 kids
- Even odds of a second one
Where Vela sits on the popularity scale
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.
Put another way: gather 135,172 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Vela. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.
When Velas were born
Half of everyone ever recorded as Vela was born before 1929 — so the typical Vela is around 96 today.
- Biggest decade
- 1910s
- 18.9% of all use
- Born in the last 25 years
- 27.4%
- Spread across generations
- Recorded since 1950
- 378
- People you could plausibly meet
1910s — 18.9% of all recorded uses (205).
Is Vela 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
- −870
- Places dropped
- Rank vs 5 years ago
- +2,689
- Places climbed
- Rank vs 10 years ago
- −794
- Places dropped
- Births vs 10 years ago
- 0.77×
- Fewer babies than then
- Share of its own peak
- 44.7%
- Peak was 1915 (38)
- Years since peak
- 110
- Years
- Year-to-year steadiness
- Volatile
- 44.8% average annual change
Spellings of Vela
Vela is not the most common spelling — Ella is, with 10.2% against Vela's 0.03%.
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 Vela is used
Across 1910–2025, Vela was most concentrated in Kentucky — about 1 in 100,000 girls, against 1 in 259,890 across all states with data. It was least common in Texas (1 in —).
Most concentrated
- 1Kentucky1 in 100,000
- 2Alabama1 in —
- 3Arkansas1 in —
- 4California1 in —
- 5Texas1 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. Vela has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.
Vela around the world
Where Vela 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 & Wales2014–2014#5,691in 2014
- Canada2022–2022#2,896in 2022
Popularity data from Office for National Statistics and Statistics Canada. ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.
Vela by the numbers
The raw record for each sex the name is used for.
Names similar to Vela
Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.
Sibling names for Vela
Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.