NameCensus.

UK girl's name

Ariela

A feminine Hebrew name meaning "lion of God".

For 2026, the newest official UK baby-name figures on this page are from 2024. That release is the current official benchmark rather than a forecast.

Ariela is a girl's name in the UK records. People looking for Ariela popularity in 2026 should use the latest official release, which is 2024 in this profile. In that release it ranked #1672, with 18 babies registered with the name. Its strongest year in the published records was 2016, with 19 births.

This profile covers 213 England and Wales registrations across 20 recorded years from 2002 to 2024. The figures come from ONS England and Wales and NRS Scotland, so the page is a view of published baby-name registrations rather than a forecast or a live count of people using the name today.

The latest count is about 95% of the recorded peak, which gives a quick read on how the name has moved since its high point.

We estimate that about 218 living people in the UK are called Ariela. This uses published birth registrations from England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, then applies ONS national life tables to estimate how many are likely still alive. It does not forecast extra births for 2025 or 2026.

Key insights

  • Ariela ranked #1672 for girls in England and Wales in 2024, with 18 registrations.
  • The name peaked in 2016, when 19 girls were registered as Ariela.
  • Ariela ranks best in Scotland in the latest published regional snapshot for that area, where it placed #809 in 2018.
  • About 218 living people in the UK are estimated to have Ariela as a first name, after adjusting past birth registrations with ONS life tables.

Latest rank (E&W)

#1672

2024

Births in 2024

18

Latest year

Peak year

2016

19 births

Estimated living

218

2026

Meaning

What does Ariela mean?

The name Ariela is a Hebrew name derived from the word "Ariel," which means "lion of God." It is a feminine version of the name Ariel and has been in use since ancient times in the Jewish community.

The earliest recorded use of the name Ariela can be traced back to the Bible, where it is mentioned as the name of a daughter of one of the sons of Gad. In the Book of Numbers, chapter 26, verse 17, the name Ariela is listed among the descendants of Gad.

During the Middle Ages, the name Ariela was commonly used among Jewish communities in Europe and the Middle East. One of the earliest recorded individuals with this name was Ariela Bat Yitzhak, a Jewish scholar who lived in Spain in the 12th century.

In the 16th century, the name Ariela gained popularity in Italy, particularly among Jewish families. One notable figure from this time was Ariela Nazzari, an Italian-Jewish writer and poet who lived in the city of Ferrara in the late 1500s.

As the name spread throughout Europe, it also found its way to England. In the 17th century, Ariela Browne was a well-known English writer and translator who published works on various subjects, including religion and philosophy.

In the 19th century, the name Ariela became more widely used outside of the Jewish community. One prominent figure was Ariela Caselli, an Italian painter and sculptor who was active in the late 1800s and known for her portraits and religious works.

Another notable individual with the name Ariela was Ariela Warshel, an Israeli-American chemist who was born in 1940 and later won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2013 for her work on the development of computational methods in chemistry.

Sourced from namecensus.com.

Popularity

Ariela over time

The chart below shows babies named Ariela registered in England and Wales in the years where the name appears in the published records, from 2002 to 2024. Empty years are left out so rare names are not stretched across long periods where the published files do not show any registrations.

For Ariela, the clearest high point is 2016. The latest England and Wales figure is 18 births in 2024, compared with 19 at the peak.

Babies born per year

Ariela
05101419200220132024

Decades

Ariela by decade

Decade totals smooth out the yearly jumps and make it easier to see whether Ariela was a short-lived spike or a name that stayed in regular use. Average rank is calculated only from years where a published rank exists.

Decade Average rank Total births Years covered
2020s #1963 73 5
2010s #2770 120 10
2000s #4140 20 5

Geography

Where Ariela is most common

The bars show the latest published local birth counts for Ariela. They are useful for spotting where the name is showing up in real numbers, while the rank beside each bar shows how strongly it performs inside that region.

Ariela ranks best in Scotland in the latest published regional snapshot for that area, where it placed #809 in 2018.

Scotland
3

Across the UK

Ariela in Scotland and Northern Ireland

Scotland (NRS)

#809 in 2018

2 years of NRS records, 6 total registered

Related

Names similar to Ariela

FAQ

Ariela: questions and answers

How popular is the name Ariela in the UK right now?

In 2024, Ariela was ranked #1672 for girls in England and Wales, with 18 births registered.

When was Ariela most popular?

The peak year on record was 2016, with 19 babies registered as Ariela in England and Wales.

What is the meaning and origin of Ariela?

A feminine Hebrew name meaning "lion of God".

How many people are called Ariela in the UK?

A total of 213 babies have been registered as Ariela across the 20 years of ONS England & Wales records shown here, plus 6 more in Scotland.

Where is Ariela most common?

In the latest published local rankings, Ariela ranks best in Scotland, where it placed #809 in 2018. The regional bars on this page use birth counts, so they also reflect the size of each region.

Which records is this page based on?

The England and Wales timeline uses ONS baby-name records. Scotland figures come from NRS and Northern Ireland figures come from NISRA. Counts are registrations in published baby-name files. The living estimate uses those birth registrations with ONS national life tables.