Zelle

surname · Latin script

Meaning: Toponymic surname from a place/dwelling name in the Zell- group; the page notes it is scattered in the northern half of Germany

Recorded as a female name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise

/ˈzɛɫ/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated

Zelle is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in China than in any other country.

rarermore common
  • USUnited States1 in 934K(measured from records)
  • DEGermany≈1 in 142K
  • NLNetherlands1 in 224K

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.

China (inferred from the name graph)

≈5,200 people, est.

Sources
171 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

≈1 in 142K (inferred from the name graph)

Germany, est.

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Name dossier (print, CSV)

Spellings & scripts(measured from records)

Locally spelled Z'Elle in MA Morocco.

Meaning & origin(measured from records)

Toponymic surname from a place/dwelling name in the Zell- group; the page notes it is scattered in the northern half of Germany.

Sources 1

  • Deutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 4: Familiennamen nach Herkunft und Wohnstätte

Attested across 15 languages in the etymology graph.

Where in the world(measured from records)

Zelle 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.

Where Zelle is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
CN China≈5,200 est.≈1 in 270K—Zelle2
DE Germany≈560 est.≈1 in 142Klisted—1
US United States3561 in 934K356Zelle171
NL Netherlands771 in 224K77Zelle13
IT Italy≈76 est.≈1 in 824K—Zelle4
MA Morocco≈54 est.≈1 in 660K—Z'Elle2
SG Singapore≈10 est.≈1 in 623K—Zelle5

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: Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010; CBG Familienamenbank — Dutch surname bearer counts (GBA/BRP 2007); the dfa-band-4 register. 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 names spelled this way(inferred from the name graph)

Zelle is also recorded as 5 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • German surname2 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Germany, United States, Austria, Netherlands

    Also written Zéllë

  • French surname17 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in France, United States, Netherlands, Burkina Faso

    Also written Z'Elle, Zélle, Zéllé, Z'Ëllê, Zellë

  • Spanish surname3 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Philippines, Mexico, Spain

    Also written Želle, Zellê

  • a separate name2 spellings in the group

    Also written Zellé

  • Arabic surname3 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Morocco, Algeria, Kuwait

    Also written Z'Elle, Z'Ëllê

33 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.

Other recorded senses(measured from records)

Zelle 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 German, cell

    as a wordA Frequency Dictionary of German

  • In German, cell (segregated room)

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

  • In enm, alternative form of sellen

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

  • In gmh, living room

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

  • In frm, zeal

    as a wordkaikki.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.

Notable people with this name(measured from records)

18001850190019502000Robert Zelle, b. 1829Adam Zelle, b. 1840Friedrich Zelle, b. 1845Mata Hari, b. 1876Karl-Günter Zelle, b. 1936Ulli Zelle, b. 1951Ilse Zelle, b. 1951Michael Zelle, b. 1967Elisabeth Zelle, b. 1989

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)

FormalDear Ms Zelle,
InformalHi Zelle,

Evidence(measured from records)

Attested in 17 sources across 8 countries.

Official registers attesting Zelle
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 20102010356#57,234
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 20002000350#55,003
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 20202020335#64,212
NL NetherlandsCBG Familienamenbank — Dutch surname bearer counts (GBA/BRP 2007)200777#23,243
DE GermanyDeutscher Familiennamenatlas Band 4———
US United Stateswru Name Dictionary — US surnames, Census 2010 subset (Khanna et al.)———

Reference works 4

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 Zelle mean, and where does it come from?
Toponymic surname from a place/dwelling name in the Zell- group; the page notes it is scattered in the northern half of Germany. Recorded by Deutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 4: Familiennamen nach Herkunft und Wohnstätte.
How do you pronounce Zelle?
A machine transcription gives /ˈzɛɫ/ (IPA) for English.
In which country does Zelle have the most bearers?
Mondonomo estimates about 5.2 thousand people named Zelle in China, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled zelle.
How common is the name Zelle?
In the United States, the national register counted 356 people named Zelle in 2010, about 1 in 934 thousand residents.

What do you want to know about Zelle?

Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.

Please leave out anyone's personal details (see Privacy).

Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/zelle

The 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, “Zelle”. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how Zelle parses inside a full name →