Revision History

loadingDate    Editor    Change Summary
11/16/2019, 11:04 AM Mike C update #105
2/28/2019, 2:08 PM Mike C update #102
1/22/2019, 10:01 AM Mike C update #101
1/10/2017, 9:56 AM Mike C update #94
3/21/2014, 10:33 PM Mike C update #88
2/12/2007, 1:03 AM Mike C earliest recorded revision

Gender Feminine
Pronounced Pron. STEHL-ə(English)

Meaning & History

Means "star" in Latin. This name was created by the 16th-century poet Sir Philip Sidney for the subject of his collection of sonnets Astrophel and Stella. It was a nickname of a lover of Jonathan Swift, real name Esther Johnson (1681-1728), though it was not commonly used as a given name until the 19th century. It appears in Tennessee Williams' play A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), belonging to the sister of Blanche DuBois and the wife of Stanley Kowalski.