Stella
Meaning
"star," the word itself, set alight as a name in Renaissance sonnets; a favorite of the early 1900s reborn on the celestial wave. Bright, brief, and impossible to misspell
The story
Stella is the Latin word for star, used whole and unchanged. It entered the poetry books in the Renaissance, when Sir Philip Sidney addressed his sonnets to a beloved he called Stella, and by the late 1800s it was an American fixture, comfortably popular in the 1890s and 1900s. Then came a long fade: by midcentury Stella read as a grandmother's name, memorable mostly for being bellowed up a New Orleans staircase in A Streetcar Named Desire. The revival waited a full hundred years. From the 1990s the name turned upward, gathering speed with the broader taste for celestial names and vintage comebacks, and the 2010s and 2020s have it at its highest levels on record. Bright, brief, and impossible to misspell, it earns its place among the rare names that feel equally at home in 1905 and now.
The formal names behind Stella
Stella is an established short form of each of these names.
Estelle · French origin · star
Estella · Latin origin · from 'stella', meaning 'star'
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Stella peaked in the 2010s and the 2020s in nearly equal measure.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
17,527 people · the #1,155 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 11,628 · median age 10
Among people named Stella living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 2010s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 4,914 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
The Stella deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Stella truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Stella fits with your family’s names and surname.
Where Stella travels
Italian American · a beloved classic with a strong modern revival
Chinese American · a graceful older name enjoying a modern ABC revival
Dual-language · the direct English translation for Filipino families whose daughter carries the native names Tala or Bituin, both meaning star
Global crossover · popular across Italy, France and Australia and a steady climber in the US
Polish · star (Latin). In Polonia the accepted American form of Stanisława, which is why so many Polish-American grandmothers are Stellas; now back near the top of US charts on pure style, so the heritage read comes free with a fashionable name.
Keep exploring
Names like Stella · Middle names for Stella · Dual-language baby names · Global crossover names · Italian American baby names · Chinese American baby names · Polish baby names
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