Bella is a feminine given name. It is a diminutive form of names ending in -bella. Bella is related to the Italian, Spanish, Greek, Portuguese and Latin words for beautiful, and to the name Belle, meaning beautiful in French.^[1][2]

It increased in usage following the publication of the Twilight books by Stephenie Meyer. ^[3] It is also known for being a nickname to Isabella, Annabella or Arabella.

Given name

People

• Bella A. Burnasheva (born 1944), Soviet/Russian astronomer
• Bella Abzug (1920–1998), American politician and prominent figure in the women’s movement
• Bella Agossou (born 1981), Beninese actress
• Bella Akhmadulina (1937–2010), Soviet/Russian poet, writer, and translator
• Bella Alarie (born 1998), American basketball player
• Bella Alten (1877–1962), Polish operatic soprano
• Bella Alubo (born 1993), Nigerian musician, singer, and songwriter
• Bella Andre, American author
• Bella Angara (born 1939), Filipina politician and former governor of Aurora province
• Bella Awa Gassama, Gambian actress
• Bella bat R. Jakob Perlhefter (c. 1650-1709/1710), Czech professional Hebrew letter writer, businesswoman, and music instructor
• Bella Bayliss (born 1977), Scottish triathlete
• Bella Bellow (1945–1973), Togolese singer
• Bella Bixby (born 1995), American soccer player
• Bella Blue (born 1982), American burlesque dancer and producer
• Bella Burge (1877–1962), American-born British actress, music hall performer, and boxing promoter
• Bella Clara Landauer (1874–1960), American collector and writer
• Bella Clara Ventura, Colombian-Mexican novelist and poet
• Bella Cortez (born 1944), Cuban actress and dancer
• Bella Darvi (1928–1971), Polish-born French actress
• Bella Davidovich (born 1928), Soviet-born American classical pianist
• Bella Dayne (born 1988), German actress
• Bella Disu (born 1986), Nigerian businesswoman
• Bella Dodd (1904–1969), American teacher, lawyer, labor union activist, and communist-turned anti-communist
• Bella Dorita (1901–2001), Spanish cabaret singer, dancer, and vedette
• Bella Duffy (1849–1926), Irish translator and writer
• Bella Emberg (1937–2018), English comedic actress
• Bella Feldman (born 1930), American sculptor
• Bella Ferraro (born 1994), Australian singer
• Bella Flores (1936–2013), Filipina film actress
• Bella Forsgrén (born 1992), Finnish politician
• Bella French Swisher (1837–1893), American author, editor, and litterateur
• Bella Freud (born 1961), London-based fashion designer
• Bella Fromm (1890–1972), German journalist and author of Jewish heritage
• Bella Galhos (born 1972), East Timorese former independence activist
• Bella Gesser (born 1985), Israeli chess player
• Bella Goodall (1851–1884), English soubrette of the Victorian theatre
• Bella Guerin (1858–1923), Australian feminist, women’s activist, women’s suffragist, anti-conscriptionist, political activist, and schoolteacher
• Bella Hadid (born 1996), American model
• Bella Hall Gauld (1878–1961), Canadian labour educator, political activist, and pianist
• Bella Hammond (1932–2020), American activist and commercial fisherman
• Bella Hardy, English folk musician, singer and songwriter
• Bella Heathcote (born 1987), Australian actress and model
• Bella Horwitz, Bohemian Yiddish writer and historian
• Bella Hristova (born 1985), Bulgarian-American violinist
• Bella Igla (born 1985), Israeli woman chess grandmaster
• Bella Jakubiak (born 1983), Australian chef
• Bella Jarrett (1926–2007), American stage, television, and film actress and novelist
• Bella Jimenez (born c. 1982), Ecuadorian politician
• Bella Joseph, American alleged to be a Soviet spy
• Bella Keyzer (1922–1992), Scottish weaver, welder, and shipyard worker
• Bella Kocharyan (born 1954), wife of Armenian former President Robert Kocharyan
• Bella La Rosa (born 1949), Venezuelan pageant titleholder
• Bella Lewitzky (1916–2004), American modern dance choreographer and teacher
• Bella Li (born 1983), Chinese-born Australian poet
• Bella MacCallum (1886–1927), New Zealand and British botanist and mycologist
• Bella Milo (born 1986), Samoan rugby union player
• Bella Myat Thiri Lwin (born 1999), Burmese actress, model, and beauty pageant title holder
• Bella Nagy (1879–1947), Hungarian actress
• Bella Nisan, Russian ophthalmologist
• Bella Ouellette (1886–1945), Canadian actress
• Bella Paalen (1881–1964), Austrian-American operatic soprano of Hungarian origin
• Bella Paige (born 2001), Australian singer
• Bella Paredes (born 2002), Ecuadorian weightlifter
• Bella Piero (born 1996), Brazilian actress
• Bella Poarch (born 1997), Filipino-American singer and social media personality
• Bella Ramsey (born 2003), English actor and singer
• Bella Ratchinskaia (born 1953), Russian ballerina, ballet teacher, and choreographer
• Bella Reay (1900–1979), English footballer
• Bella Rosenfeld (1895–1944), Belarusian writer, first wife of painter Marc Chagall
• Bella Santiago (born 1989), Filipino singer
• Bella Shaw, American journalist and news presenter
• Bella Shmurda (born 1997), Nigerian singer
• Bella Shteinbuk (born 1960), Israeli pianist and educator
• Bella Shumiatcher (1911–1990), Russian-Canadian-American pianist and music educator
• Bella Sidney Woolf (1877–1960), English author
• Bella Sims (born 2005), American swimmer
• Bella Smith (born 2001), Australian rules footballer
• Bella Spewack (1899–1990), Romanian-American writer, half of a husband-and-wife writing team
• Bella Starace Sainati (1878–1958), Italian stage and film actress
• Bella Subbotovskaya (1937–1982), Soviet mathematician
• Bella Taylor Smith, Australian singer
• Bella Thomasson (1874–1959), British bookmaker
• Bella Thorne (born 1997), American actress
• Bella Tovey (1926–2019), Polish Holocaust survivor
• Bella van der Spiegel-Hage (born 1948), Dutch former professional cyclist
• Bella Zilfa Spencer (1840–1867), English-born American novelist and editor

Fictional characters

• Bella the Bunny Fairy, from the Rainbow Magic book franchise
• Bella Cooper, from the New Zealand soap opera Shortland Street
• Bella Dawson, the protagonist of the Nickelodeon television series Bella and the Bulldogs
• Bella Goth, from The Sims series of video games
• Bella Lasagne, from Fireman Sam
• Bella Nixon, from the Australian television soap opera Home and Away
• Bella Pesky, the little sister of Maggie, Aldrin and Pupert Pesky in The Buzz on Maggie
• Bella Swan, the human protagonist of the Twilight series
• Bellatrix Lestrange, nicknamed Bella, a Death Eater and antagonist in the "Harry Potter" series
• Bella Noche, a character who first appeared in the episode "Betty" of the animated series Adventure Time
• Bella Bunny, a bilingual rabbit from the Chuck E. Cheese restaurants.
• Bella Baxter, the protagonist of the film Poor Things (film)