Ornella
A Latin name meaning "flowering ash tree", carried through Italian. Fewer than 50 women in Poland have it, so most people here will never meet an Ornella.
Ornella Pronunciation
Ornella is pronounced or-NEL-lah (/ɔrˈnɛlla/).
What Ornella means
Where Ornella comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Ornella grows from a tree. The Latin word `ornus` named the flowering ash, and Italian reshaped it into ornello, the same Fraxinus ornus that blooms white on southern hillsides. From that plant came the name, and its meaning stayed close to the root: flowering ash tree.
The name has a birthday. Gabriele D'Annunzio wrote Ornella into his 1904 tragedy La figlia di Iorio, and the character carried the word into Italian use. Before the play it was rare. After it, families in Italy began entering Ornella on baptism records.
The best-known bearer is Ornella Muti, the actress born Francesca Romana Rivelli in Rome in 1955. She kept the stage name across decades of film work. In Poland the name stays foreign and Italian, a visitor on the register. A teacher reading a class list might pause once at Ornella before moving on. The root holds under all of it: `ornus`, the ash that flowers.
How many people are named Ornella
1 in 469663 women in Poland is named Ornella. 48 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #5496 among female names.
Ornella's popularity over time
Fewer than 2 girls were given the name in 2025. It has been climbing since 2025.
Ornella as a middle name
Ornella is a first name for 48 women in Poland and a middle name for another 12, an 80/20 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 2197th, between Olesia (12) and Pandora (12).
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#2195 Ok12
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#2196 Olesia12
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#2197 Ornella12
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#2198 Pandora12
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#2199 Reese12