Bella

Diminutive of Isabella, Italian
"beautiful"

Bella Origin and Meaning

The name Bella is a girl's name of Italian origin meaning "beautiful".

Everything ella, from Ella to Bella to Arabella, is red hot right now. Bella is one of the most, well, beautiful girl names starting with B. It carried a hint of a nice Old World grandmotherly veneer, until it became attached to Twilight's Bella Swan.

Bella derived as a diminutive of Isabella and other names with the suffix -bella, such as Anabella and Arabella, but has a meaning all its own: beautiful.That's because Bella is related to the word for "beautiful" in languages including Spanish, Italian, Latin, Portuguese, and Greek. Belle means "beautiful" in French.

If you're thinking of naming your daughter Bella, be aware that there are a lot of little girls whose proper names are Isabella, Arabella etc. who are called Bella, so you may hear the name more frequently than you'd guess judging by popularity statistics.

In pre-Twilight literature, Bella Wilfer is the central character in Charles Dickens's Our Mutual Friend.

Mark Ruffalo, Billy Bob Thornton, David Boreanaz and Eddie Murphy are all dads to Bellas. A strong feminist namesake is Bella Abzug. One current Bella is child star turned pop star Bella Thorne, born Annabella.

Bella was in use as far back as the thirteenth century, then disappeared until the eighteenth when it became fashionable.

Today, Bella is among the most popular dog names.

# 106 in the US

Bella Rank in US Top 1000

# 424 on Nameberry

Bella Rank in Nameberry Top 1000

Bella Popularity

Famous People Named Bella

  • Bella Milagro
    the daughter of Josiah & Lauren Duggar, from TLC's "Counting On"
  • Bella Abzug
    U.S. Congresswoman from New York
  • Bella Freud
    English fashion designer
  • Bella Pilar
    American illustrator
  • Isabella Khair "Bella" Hadid
    American model
  • Annabella Avery "Bella" Thorne
    American actress
  • Arwen Arabella "Bella" Hardy
    English folk singer
  • Isabella "Bella" Heathcote
    Australian actress
  • Bella Becker
    birth name of Belle Baker, American singer and actress
  • Bella Lewitzky
    American choreographer
  • Bella Rosenfeld Chagall
    Belarusian novelist; wife of painter Marc Chagall
  • Bella Cohen Spewack
    American playwright and screenwriter
  • Isabella "Bella" Loggins
    daughter of singer Kenny Loggins
  • Isabella Jane "Bella" Cruise
    daughter of actors Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman
  • Isabella "Bella" Giannulli
    daughter of actress Lori Loughlin and designer Mossimo Giannulli
  • Isabella 'Bella' Wallington
    daughter of actress Tina Hobley and Steve Wallington
  • Bella Ivory Aziza Wayans
    daughter of actors Keenen Ivory and Daphne Wayans
  • Bella Zahra Murphy
    daughter of actor Eddie Murphy
  • Bella Thornton
    daughter of actor Billy Bob Thornton and Connie Angland
  • Bella Noche Ruffalo (b. 2005)
    daughter of actor Mark Ruffalo
  • Bella Blu Ray (b. 2008)
    daughter of bodybuilder Shawn Ray
  • Bella Vita Bardot Boreanaz (b. 2009)
    daughter of actor David Boreanaz
  • Bella Rose Lambert (b. 2013)
    daughter of footballer Rickie Lambert
  • Bella Monroe James (b. 2012)
    daughter of rapper Juelz Santana and model Kimbella
  • Bella Tatum Poor (b. 2013)
    daughter of skater Naomi Nari Nam and Tyler Poor
  • Bella Meskhi (b. 2015)
    daughter of actors Ekaterina Klimova and Gela Meskhi
  • Bella Raine Jeter (b. 2017)
    daughter of baseball player Derek Jeter
  • Luca Bella Facinelli
    daughter of actors Jennie Garth and Peter Facinelli
  • Kaiya Bella Luna Stormare (b. 2009)
    daughter of actor Peter Stormare
  • Cai Bella Bridges (b. 2011)
    daughter of rapper Ludacris

Bella in Pop Culture

  • Isabella Marie "Bella" Swan
    main character in the Twilight Saga
  • Bellatrix "Bella" Lestrange
    character in the Harry Potter series
  • Bella Monroe
    character in the video game Siren: Blood Curse
  • Bella
    character in play "Lost in Yonkers" by Neil Simon
  • Bella
    character on TV's "Young Americans"
  • Isabella "Bella" Hartley
    mermaid on TV series "H2O: Just Add Water"
  • Bella Goth (nee Bachelor)
    character in "The Sims" (1,4) video/computer games
  • Isabella Jane "Bella" Cooper
    character on New Zealand soap "Shortland Street"
  • Bella of Brockhall
    badger character in the Redwall series
  • Bella Dawson
    main character on TV's "Bella and the Bulldogs"
  • Bella Sharpe
    character on British soap "Hollyoaks"
  • Bella Moriarty Spellgrove
    character in "Sherlock Holmes: The Musical"
  • Bella
    minor character in the Game of Thrones series
  • Bella Rose King
    character on Australian soap "Home and Away"
  • Bella
    character in the Warriors series
  • Bella Crossley
    character on TV's "Evermoor"
  • Bella
    character in Erin Hunter's "Survivors" book series
  • Bella Donna Boudreaux
    character in Marvel's X,Men comics