Angela

Where the name comes from

• Latin, from Greek
  angel; Greek angelos "messenger, envoy, one that announces"
  Latin angelus (feminine Angela), from Greek angelos (ἄγγελος)
  Attested origin. etymonline: "Latin fem. of angelus "angel""; angelos is literally "messenger, envoy, one that announces". Yonge (1884) glossary: "Angela, f. Eng. Span. It. Gr. angel". The deeper origin of Greek angelos is uncertain: etymonline gives "an unknown Oriental word", notes that Beekes compares angaros "Persian mounted carrier", and says Klein suggests Semitic sources.

Angela across traditions

• Christian (Roman Catholic). St. Angela Merici (1474–1540) founded the Company of St. Ursula (the Ursulines) at Brescia on 25 November 1535 and was canonized in 1807 (Britannica).
• Jewish and biblical background. Greek angelos was the word Scripture translations used for Hebrew mal'akh (YHWH), "messenger (of Jehovah)", from the root l-'-k "to send" (etymonline). This is the source of the idea behind the name. Angela itself is not a Hebrew name.
• European (English, Spanish, Italian). Yonge (1884) lists Angela as English, Spanish and Italian. DMNES records the masculine counterpart Angelus/Angelo in Italy from 1285, in Malta (1465), in Spain (1490) and in Catalan (Angel, 1510).
• United States (SSA). 617,998 births in the SSA decade top-200 tables, 1950s–2010s. Peak decade: the 1970s, at #7 for girls (225,262 births). Top 100 from the 1960s through the 1990s. Sources: ssa.gov/oact/babynames/decades/names1950s.html through names2010s.html.

Who carried it

• St. Angela Merici (1474–1540): Italian founder of the Ursulines (Company of St. Ursula, 1535), canonized May 24, 1807 (Britannica).

Angela in letter-number systems

Hebrew, Greek and other traditions gave every letter a number, and read meaning into the totals. These are the counts, computed; the readings are inside the Innerverse.