Telle

Attested across 4 languages in the etymology graph.

Telle is one spelling over 4 language communities, and the dictionaries record it differently in 3 of them. Each row is what a source recorded for that language, beside the share of this name’s records the language holds. No single row is the name’s meaning.

• French36%

  feminine singular of tel

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• English31%

  A community in Lesotho.

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• Spanish12%

  No dictionary in our sources glosses Telle in Spanish.

• German8.9%

  1. zu Delle. 2. tsch. tele "Kalb". Tel|ske, tz (telec, telcek; Tell- sdiick); obwend. celc: Schilz(ke); poln. cielak "großes Kalb": Schellack. 3. pruß. N.

  as a name·Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung

  from Delle, or Czech tele 'calf'

  as a name·Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung

The share is ours — how much of this name’s records each language holds. The sense beside it is the source’s, quoted and credited, including where it names a gender. We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.

Telle is also recorded as 3 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• English surname6 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada

  Languages: English, Dutch

  Also written Tęllę, Télle, Tẻllẻ

• Spanish surname5 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Argentina, Mexico, United States, Spain

  Languages: Spanish, Portuguese

  Also written Télle, Tellé

• English surname12 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Germany, India, Australia

  Languages: English, German

  Also written Tele, Tel-E, Télé, Téle, Tèle

40 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Telle is also recorded in 2 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In Norwegian Bokmål, to count

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In Dutch, singular present subjunctive of tellen

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

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.

• Martha Telle Cannonb. 1846USwife of George Q. Cannon
• Erhard Telleb. 1933DEGerman military leader (1933–1991)
• Catrine Telleb. 1953NONorwegian director
• Serge Telleb. 1955FRFrench civil servant, Minister of State of Monaco from 2016 to 2020
• Sabine Telleb. 1980DEGerman phytopathologist, mycologist and microbiologist
• Metin Telleb. 1980DETurkish association football player (born 1980)
• Hannah Telleb. 1987USAmerican 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).

Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.

What does the name Telle mean, and where does it come from?

feminine singular of tel Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).

How do you pronounce Telle?

In Spanish /tɛʎɛ/. Transcriptions are machine-generated except where a dictionary is named.

In which country does Telle have the most bearers?

Mondonomo estimates about 1.2 thousand people named Telle in France, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled telle.

Where is Telle most common?

Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Telle is densest in Norway — about 1 in 6.0 thousand people — even though France holds more of our records for it.

How common is the name Telle?

In Norway, the national register counted 908 people named Telle, about 1 in 6.0 thousand residents.