Fenella
given name · Latin script
Meaning: Scottish form of Finola, occasionally found in Ireland
Recorded as a female name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/fɛˈnɛɫə/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Fenella is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the United Kingdom than in any other country.
- GBUnited Kingdom≈1 in 104K(inferred from the name graph)
- USUnited States1 in 2.8M
- GYGuyana1 in 34K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- United Kingdom (inferred from the name graph)
- Sources
- 132 (measured from records)
- 1 in 34K (inferred from the name graph)
≈630 people, est.
Highest-authority source
Guyana
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
Scottish form of Finola, occasionally found in Ireland.
Sources 1
- Irish first names
Attested across 3 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Fenella counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GB United Kingdom | ≈630 est. | ≈1 in 104K | 3 | Fenella | 132 |
| ID Indonesia | ≈510 est. | ≈1 in 527K | — | Fenella | 24 |
| PH Philippines | ≈180 est. | ≈1 in 597K | — | Fenella | 21 |
| AU Australia | ≈180 est. | ≈1 in 140K | 1 | Fenella | 62 |
| MY Malaysia | ≈130 est. | ≈1 in 253K | — | Fenella | 13 |
| US United States | 117 | 1 in 2.8M | 117 | Fenella | 108 |
| NZ New Zealand | ≈66 est. | ≈1 in 75K | — | Fenella | 39 |
| GY Guyana | 22 | 1 in 34K | 22 | Fenella | 1 |
Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: NRS — Baby names Scotland full list (1974–present); Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; SA BDM — Popular baby names South Australia (1944–present); Guyana — Official List of Electors July 2025. Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Fenella is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In English, A female given name from Scottish Gaelic.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In French, D’origine celtique; signifie « jeune fille aux épaules blanches ».
as a nameLe grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)
In English, the white-shouldered one; Irish origin.
as a nameBaby names, 25,350 baby names nicknames for your family, friends pets, including the top 100 names, 2,000 most popular…
In German, [fi'nete]: aus dem
as a nameDUDEN Lexikon der Vornamen
Scottish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Fionnuala . Variants: Finelia, Finola, Fionola. See also NUALA .
as a word
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Anne Bowes-Lyonb. 1917USnot in their usual namewife of Prince George Valdemar of Denmark; maternal first cousin of Elizabeth II
- Fenella Fieldingb. 1927GBEnglish actress (1927–2018)
- Fenella Ephraim Mukangarab. 1955TZTanzanian politician
- Fionnuala Kennyb. 1956IEnot in their usual nameIrish public relations specialist (born 1956)
- Fionnuala Sherryb. 1962IEnot in their usual nameIrish musician
- Fionnuala Sweeneyb. 1965GBnot in their usual nameNorthern Irish television journalist
- Fionnuala Ní Aoláinb. 1967IEnot in their usual nameIrish legal academic
- Fenella Woolgarb. 1969GBEnglish actress
- Fionnuala McCormackb. 1984IEnot in their usual nameIrish long distance and steeplechase runner
- Fionnuala MurphyGBnot in their usual nameBritish actress
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
How to address them(machine-generated)
A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 27 sources across 18 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 117 | #50,823 |
| GY Guyana | Guyana — Official List of Electors July 2025 | 2025 | 22 | #572 |
| GB United Kingdom | NRS — Baby names Scotland full list (1974–present) | 2008 | 3 | #793 |
| AU Australia | SA BDM — Popular baby names South Australia (1944–present) | 2008 | 1 | — |
| AU Australia | SA BDM — Popular baby names South Australia (1944–present) | 2006 | 1 | — |
| AU Australia | SA BDM — Popular baby names South Australia (1944–present) | 1997 | 1 | — |
| AU Australia | SA BDM — Popular baby names South Australia (1944–present) | 1995 | 1 | — |
| AU Australia | SA BDM — Popular baby names South Australia (1944–present) | 1987 | 1 | — |
| AU Australia | SA BDM — Popular baby names South Australia (1944–present) | 1986 | 1 | — |
| AU Australia | SA BDM — Popular baby names South Australia (1944–present) | 1981 | 1 | — |
| AU Australia | SA BDM — Popular baby names South Australia (1944–present) | 1974 | 1 | — |
| AU Australia | SA BDM — Popular baby names South Australia (1944–present) | 1971 | 1 | — |
Reference works 2
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- What does the name Fenella mean, and where does it come from?
- Scottish form of Finola, occasionally found in Ireland. Recorded by Irish first names.
- What are other forms of the name Fenella?
- In the etymology graph, Fionnuala, Finola and Finella are forms of the same name in other languages.
- How do you pronounce Fenella?
- A machine transcription gives /fɛˈnɛɫə/ (IPA) for English.
- Is Fenella a male or female name?
- Fenella is a female name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.
- In which country does Fenella have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 631 people named Fenella in the United Kingdom, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled fenella.
- Where is Fenella most common?
- Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Fenella is densest in Guyana — about 1 in 34 thousand people — even though United Kingdom holds more of our records for it.
- How common is the name Fenella?
- In the United States, the national register counted 117 people named Fenella in 2020, about 1 in 2.8 million residents.
What do you want to know about Fenella?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/fenellaThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Fenella”. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.