Della is the English diminutive of names ending in -della (such as Adella, Cordelia) or of Delia — also from the Germanic edel (noble). A top-100 US baby name from 1880 to 1907, peaking at #46 in 1890 — one of the iconic Victorian-era American names. Della Reese (1931-2017) — *American singer, actress, and ordained minister; star of CBS's Touched by an Angel (1994-2003) for nine seasons as Tess, supervisor of the angels — a role that earned her four Primetime Emmy nominations. First Black woman to host her own variety show (NBC's Della, 1969-1970). Grammy nomination for her gospel album In the Meantime (1969). Co-founded the Understanding Principles for Better Living Church in 1986. Della Beatrice Dean (1881-1956) — American settlement-house worker; one of the first Black women social workers in New York's Lower East Side. Della Goodwin — American educator. Della Reese was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame (1994). Della* is also the diminutive of Adele.
Featured throughout late-19th-century American culture and 1990s-2000s television.
Della does not currently appear in the US Social Security Administration's top 1,000 girls' names, so we don't publish a US rank or birth count for it. That says nothing about the name's standing elsewhere in the world — only that it sits outside the ranked US data we rely on.
In Pythagorean numerology the letters of Della reduce to 7, The Seeker. This is a traditional interpretive system, not a factual claim about the name.