Stela
From Latin stella, "star", spelled with one l where the Latin original doubles it. Fewer than 250 women in Poland carry it, so meeting one stays memorable.
Stela Pronunciation
Stela is pronounced STE-lah (/ˈstɛla/).
What Stela means
Where Stela comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Stela reaches back to Latin stella, which meant star. It is one of those Latin words that traveled into many languages without changing its job. The same root sits inside English words like stellar and constellation. In Polish the sense is simply gwiazda.
The variant Stella keeps the doubled letter of the Latin original, while Stela wears a single l, closer to how a Polish ear spells what it hears. On a school register the name looks short and unfussy. A child answers to it in one clean beat.
A star was never a private thing for the Romans who first used stella. It named what everyone could see overhead. Anyone called Stela carries that same public brightness in her name, and the meaning stays legible: gwiazda, star.
How many people are named Stela
1 in 90903 women in Poland is named Stela. 248 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #1955 among female names.
Stela's popularity over time
Fewer than 2 girls were given the name in 2025. It has been climbing since 2025.
Stela as a middle name
Stela is a first name for 248 women in Poland and a middle name for another 115, a 68/32 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 618th, between Silvia (115) and Frida (114).
-
#616 Marion115
-
#617 Silvia115
-
#618 Stela115
-
#619 Frida114
-
#620 Jola114