MEANING & HISTORY
What does Angela mean?
Angela is a feminine name in the family of Latin Angelus and Greek angelos, messenger. The Tagalog account identifies a borrowing from Spanish Ángela, while the English entry explains the older Latin and Greek connection.
The angelic religious sense developed within that word history; messenger is the underlying lexical idea. Angela and Ángela are related language spellings, not additional registrations of the same exact form. Angel, Angelina and Angelica belong to the wider family but have their own formations.
References for this explanation
Pronunciation & syllables
Dictionary readings are kept by language. Select the reading that matches your intended pronunciation. Dots show the source’s written divisions; they are not a universal syllable count across languages.
Tagalog
- /ˈʔaŋhela/Standard-Tagalog
- [ˌʔaŋ.hɛˈla]Standard-Tagalog
- /ˈʔand͡ʒela/Standard-Tagalog
- [ˌʔan̪.d͡ʒɛˈla]Standard-Tagalog
- /ˈʔandjela/Standard-Tagalog · no palatal assimilation
- [ˌʔan̪.d̪jɛˈla]Standard-Tagalog · no palatal assimilation
An · ge · la3 source divisions
Dictionary reading & contributors ↗Wiktionary contributors / Kaikki / Wiktextract · CC BY-SA 4.0
Origin and name formation
Language-specific accounts from the dictionary. A shared spelling can have more than one history.
TagalogEtymology & source
Borrowed from Spanish Ángela.
a female given name from Spanish, equivalent to English Angela
Wiktionary: Angela (Tagalog) ↗ · Contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0
EnglishEtymology & source
Feminine form of Church Latin Angelus, from Ancient Greek ἄγγελος (ángelos, “messenger, angel”).
A female given name from Ancient Greek.
Wiktionary: Angela (English) ↗ · Contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0
Adapted from Wiktionary contributors via Kaikki/Wiktextract. Source accounts remain in their original English; editorial summaries and filters are adapted. Attribution and downloads
People with the name Angela
Public figures and other documented namesakes linked by an explicit given-name claim. This is a selection of records, not a popularity ranking.
DOCUMENTED NAMESAKE
Angela Manalang-Gloria
Filipino writer (1907–1995)
DOCUMENTED NAMESAKE
Ala Paredes
Filipino model, activist and writer
The record establishes the name association, not the person’s intended meaning, pronunciation or ancestry. Descriptions are attributed to Wikidata contributors (CC0).
Use in Philippine-linked records
Public-record transcription
4
eligible source records · 2001
This spelling is reported in an openly licensed transcription of elected-candidate records. This is a record count, not a birth count or national popularity measure.
OpenHalalan / COMELEC ↗Wikidata
8
distinct person records with an explicit given-name claim
Community-edited coverage, not a census or birth registry. Examples: Angela Manalang-Gloria, Ala Paredes
PSA · OFFICIAL BIRTH RECORDS
Angela in the birth records
Exact spelling and stated year in the published name tables. Read the counts as individual snapshots.
Girls’ registered births
View yearly counts and sources
| Year | Registered births | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2016 ↗ | Not listed in this publication | — |
| 2017 ↗ | 1,769 | #5 |
| 2018 ↗ | 1,810 | #4 |
| 2019 | No verified table imported | — |
| 2020 ↗ | 1,048 | #10 |
| 2021 | No verified table imported | — |
| 2022 ↗ | Not listed in this publication | — |
| 2023 ↗ | Not listed in this publication | — |
| 2024 ↗ | Not listed in this publication | — |
Tables included: 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2024. The 2016 fact sheet lists five names per sex; the later tables include ten. Missing counts are not inferred. Sex categories follow the official tables, independently of dictionary gender labels. Explore the official tables →
Related forms & spellings
Related forms may have their own language histories. They are not included in this spelling’s PSA count.
Similar names to Angela
Names with a similar opening or ending, ordered by spelling distance. Similar spelling does not imply the same meaning or origin.
Names in this collection
- Ángela♀Feminine Angel-name form; messenger
- Angel♀Messenger; associated with an angel
- Ángel♂Angel or messenger
- Angelia♀Elaborated form of Angela
- Angelo♂Angel; messenger
- Aniela♀Messenger, through Angela
- Adela♀Noble; from the Germanic adal element
- Angelica♀Angelic; ultimately from Greek messenger
What rhymes with Angela?
No dictionary-confirmed rhyme match is available for this spelling in the current catalogue.
Recorded combinations with Angela
1 source-reported compound forms include this name as a component. Each part keeps its own history.
Names in this collection
Explore combinations →Explore Angela further
Follow the sources
- OpenHalalan — pinned 2001 COMELEC transcription (opens in a new tab)
Source-reported given-name form in a row with a separate explicit middle initial; ODbL-1.0.
- COMELEC — 2001 List of Elected Candidates (opens in a new tab)
Original document identified by the transcription; selected PDF entries were spot-checked, not every imported row.
- Wikidata given-name item Q4851436 — Angela (opens in a new tab)
Given-name identity, native labels, language associations and explicit class where present; not lexical meaning or population frequency.
- Wikidata — Angela Manalang-Gloria (opens in a new tab)
Explicit given-name claim P735 linking to Q4851436 and citizenship claim P27 linking to Philippines Q928; community-edited evidence, not a civil-registry record.
- Wikidata — Ala Paredes (opens in a new tab)
Explicit given-name claim P735 linking to Q4851436 and citizenship claim P27 linking to Philippines Q928; community-edited evidence, not a civil-registry record.
- Wiktionary contributors — Angela (Tagalog) (opens in a new tab)
Explicit given-name sense and separately attributed etymology; no birth-frequency claim.
- Wiktionary contributors — Angela (English) (opens in a new tab)
Language-specific given-name etymology; shared spelling does not prove every bearer has this origin.