Bella
Meaning of Bella
Bella traces its etymology to the Latin adjective “bellus,” meaning “beautiful,” a root that migrated into Italian and later into English where the name functions both as a standalone choice and as a clipped form of Isabella, Arabella, or Annabella. In American vital-statistics tables it hovered in the low hundreds for decades, but a sharp inflection point around 2008—buoyed by the Twilight protagonist Bella Swan and society’s growing appetite for two-syllable names—drove it as high as 48th in 2010, with a gradual easing to 109th by 2024. The pronunciation (BEL-uh) is phonologically economical, lacking exotic consonant clusters and therefore surviving playground stress-tests in multiple languages. Cultural references range from Henry James’s refined heroines to the very modern Bella Hadid, underwriting a dual image of literary poise and runway currency. Semantically transparent and internationally legible, Bella offers parents a compact yet resonant signal of aesthetic admiration—proof, perhaps, that sometimes linguistic minimalism is the most flattering mirror.
Pronunciation
Italian
- Pronunced as BEHL-lah (/ˈbɛl.la/)
English
- Pronunced as BEL-uh (/ˈbɛlə/)
U.S. Popularity Chart
States Popularity Chart
Notable People Named Bella
| Bella Hadid - Isabella Khair Hadid is an American model who has appeared on 35 international Vogue covers, was named 2022 British Fashion Council Model of the Year, and made the Time 100 in 2023. |
| Bella Thorne - Annabella Avery Thorne is an American actress, singer, and writer known for Dirty Sexy Money and My Own Worst Enemy, earning a Young Artist Award for the latter. |
| Bella Abzug was an American lawyer, politician, and activist who helped found the National Womens Political Caucus in 1971 and became a leading voice in ecofeminism. |
| Bella Ramsey - Isabella May Ramsey is an English actor best known for playing Lyanna Mormont in Game of Thrones and Ellie in The Last of Us, earning them BAFTA, Golden Globe, and two Emmy nominations. |
| American singer and social media star Bella Poarch rose to fame with the most liked TikTok of 2020 and is among the most followed on the platform, the most followed from the Philippines. |
| Bella Heathcote - Isabella Heathcote is an Australian actress who gained recognition on Neighbours and for roles in Dark Shadows and Professor Marston and the Wonder Women. |
| Bella Burge was an American born British music hall performer and actress who later became the first female boxing promoter, running The Ring in Southwark and earning the nickname Bella of Blackfriars. |
| Bella Tabak Feldman was an American sculptor who pioneered glass with steel, explored themes of sexuality, war, and industrial anxiety, taught at California College of the Arts, and worked in Oakland and London. |
| Bella French Swisher was a 19th century American author, editor, and publisher who founded periodicals, worked with Midwestern newspapers, and published nonfiction, novels, and poetry before dying in 1893. |
| Soviet mathematician Bella Abramovna Subbotovskaya founded the Jewish Peoples University to help those barred by anti Jewish bias, and after KGB scrutiny she died when hit by a truck amid assassination speculation. |
| Bella Blue is an American burlesque dancer and producer who founded and leads the New Orleans School of Burlesque. |
| Hungarian actress Bella Nagy was the second wife of writer Mor Jokai. |
| Bella Alten was a Polish born operatic soprano trained in Berlin and Dresden who debuted in 1897, performed leading roles across Europe, and was recruited to the Metropolitan Opera after being heard at Covent Garden in the early 1900s. |
| Bella MacCallum - Bella Dytes MacIntosh MacCallum was a New Zealand and British botanist and mycologist, and the first woman in New Zealand to earn a Doctor of Science. |
| Bella Rosenfeld Chagall, a Jewish Russian writer from Vitebsk now in Belarus and the first wife of Marc Chagall, was the subject of many of his paintings from Bella au col blanc in 1917 to the posthumous Bouquet pres de la fenetre in 1959 to 1960. |
