Petronella

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 16 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Petronella is also recorded as another name, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• French given name1.3K records spelled Petronella3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in France, South Africa, Belgium, Zambia

  Languages: French, Catalan

  Also written Pétronella

50 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●

Petronella 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 Swedish, Petronella är en latinsk diminutivform av Petronia, som är en femininform till släktnamnet Petronius (av ovisst ursprung). Kortformen Nella används också i Sverige. I den rikssvenska almanackan 31 maj, till minne av en martyr som enligt traditionen var dotter till aposteln Petrus.

  as a name·Förnamn i Sverige. Kortfattat namnlexikon

• In Italian, de Petrone com sufixo feminino singular -ella.

  as a name·Dicionário dos sobrenomes italianos

• In German, ) Petronilla: weibl. Vom. zu lat. Petronilla, einer Weiterbildung von dem

  as a name·DUDEN Lexikon der Vornamen

• In Swedish, a female given name of Latin origin. Variant: Pernilla

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In Latvian, Sievietes vārds

  as a word·Tēzaurs.lv (Dictionary and Thesaurus of Latvian, AiLab / LU MII)

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.

Over time●

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 34 years between 1884–1949. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Puck Overslootb. 1914NLnot in their usual nameswimmer (1914-2009)
• Johanna Petronella Vorster Vosloob. 1934ZAmother of Arnold Vosloo
• Kitty Courboisb. 1937NLnot in their usual nameDutch actress (1937-2017)
• Petronella Barkerb. 1942GBBritish actress
• Bettine Vriesekoopb. 1961NLnot in their usual nameDutch table tennis player
• Petronella Barkerb. 1965NOBritish-born Norwegian actress
• Petronella Wyattb. 1969GBEnglish writer
• Petronella Ekrothb. 1989SESwedish association football player
• Petronella Tshumab. 1990ZASouth African actress
• Karoline Schaub. 1999NOnot in their usual nameNorwegian actress

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).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 129 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Petronella?

We estimate roughly 211 thousand people bear Petronella (counting its spellings and scripts) across 8 countries in our records.

In which country does Petronella have the most bearers?

We estimate about 208 thousand people bear Petronella in the Netherlands, more than in any other country in our records, where it is most often spelled petronella.

Where is Petronella most common?

Petronella is densest in the Netherlands, where the national register counts about 1 in 83 people carrying it.

How common is Petronella compared with other names?

In the Netherlands, Petronella is the 16th most common given name of 134,847 given names recorded there.

Is Petronella a male or female name?

Petronella is a female name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Petronella mean?

Recorded meaning: A female given name from Latin, rare in English after Middle Ages.