Arbella
Derived from Latin for "little bear", a variant of the name Arabella.
Name Census estimates that about 54 living Americans carry the first name Arbella. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Arbella today is around 9 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Arbella births was 2012 (11 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Arbella. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Arbella with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Arbella. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
54
~ 1 in 6,347,303 Americans
Peak year
2012
11 babies that year
Average age
9
years old
2023 SSA rank
#12,288
Tracked since 1908
Census
Arbella in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 158 people with the first name Arbella, which placed it at #44,091 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#44,091
National first-name rank
People counted
158
158 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
58.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Arbella
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Arbella is White at 58.9%. The next largest groups are Black (18.4%) and Hispanic (13.9%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Arbella described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Arbella at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White58.9% · 93
- Black or African American18.4% · 29
- Hispanic or Latino13.9% · 22
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.4% · 7
- Two or more races4.4% · 7
Popularity
Arbella: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Arbella from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 29 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Arbella by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Arbella during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Arbella
The name Arbella is an English feminine given name that originated during the late medieval period. It is derived from the Latin word "arbella," which means "little tree" or "sapling." This name likely came into use as a diminutive form of the Latin name "Arbor," meaning "tree."
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Arbella can be found in the historical records of the 16th century. Arbella Stuart, born in 1575, was an English aristocrat and a claimant to the English and Scottish thrones. She was the great-granddaughter of Margaret Tudor, the eldest daughter of King Henry VII of England.
Another notable figure who bore the name Arbella was Arbella Dumaresq, born in 1677. She was an English writer and translator who published several works, including a French translation of John Locke's "Essay Concerning Human Understanding."
In the 18th century, Arbella Pye, born in 1742, was an English poet and writer. She published several volumes of poetry and was considered a talented literary figure of her time.
The name Arbella also appeared in the world of literature. In the novel "The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders" by Daniel Defoe, published in 1722, one of the characters is named Arbella.
Another notable bearer of the name was Arbella Petrie, born in 1854. She was a Scottish archaeologist and Egyptologist who made significant contributions to the field of Egyptology and the excavation of ancient sites in Egypt.
While the name Arbella has been used throughout history, it has remained relatively uncommon. It has been more popular in certain regions, such as England and the United States, but has never been among the most widely used given names.
People
Arbella + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Arbella as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with A
Other first names starting with A with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Arbella: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Arbella?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 54 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Arbella going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 6,347,303 US residents.
Is Arbella a common name?
We classify Arbella as "Very Rare". It ranks above 55.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 82 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Arbella most popular?
The single biggest year for Arbella was 2012, when 11 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Arbella is about 9 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Arbella in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 158 people with the name Arbella, or 0.05 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #44,091 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Arbella in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Arbella?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Arbella appears almost entirely female. Of the 163 people counted with this name, 100.0% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Arbella?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Arbella is White at 58.9%. The next largest groups are Black (18.4%) and Hispanic (13.9%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Arbella most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Arbella in the 2020 Census, accounting for 58.9% (93 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Arbella in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Arbella a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Arbella in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Arbella still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Arbella in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Arbella can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people share the name Arbella?
You can see how many Americans are named Arbella on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.