Meaning and background
The story behind Estella
Estella is a Latinate form of Estelle and has a recognisable literary bearer in Charles Dickens's Great Expectations. Those two facts provide different possible reasons for choosing it: the name family or the character. The cited English reading stresses the middle syllable and preserves the final vowel. For a dog, that creates a fuller call than a shortened household form. An owner can keep Estella complete without importing the fictional character's personality or assuming everyone chose the name for the novel.
- Origin
- Latinate form of Estelle; also the name of Estella Havisham in Great Expectations. Source
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About Estella
Recorded as a dog’s name
Estella appears in 3 dog licence records in the 2026 New York City dataset.
How to read this count
These records cover New York City and may count the same dog in more than one licence period. They are not a national popularity ranking.
Pronunciation and rhythm
/ɛstɛlə/
US English sound sequence, converted from the CMU dictionary. Stress marks are shown separately.
Stress on the second syllable in the recorded US readings.
View dictionary notation
/ɛstɛlə/ · primary stress on syllable 2EH0 S T EH1 L AH0
These are US dictionary readings. Personal, regional and other language pronunciations may differ.
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Sources and research notes (2)
- New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene NYC Dog Licensing Dataset — extract_year 2026 — Dog licence periods, not unique dogs; NYC only. No owner-level fields retrieved.
- Carnegie Mellon University / CMU Sphinx maintainers CMU US English Pronouncing Dictionary — US English dictionary readings; not owner-specific or exhaustive multilingual pronunciation
References support the individual facts shown. A source link does not mean the entire profile has been verified.