Variant of Estella or Stella, from Latin 'stella' meaning star.
Astella shines at the intersection of two starlit naming traditions: Stella, from the Latin for 'star,' and the constellation of 'Ast-' names influenced by the Greek 'astron,' also meaning star. The result is a name that effectively doubles down on celestial imagery, giving it an almost operatic luminosity. Stella alone has a long and distinguished pedigree — Philip Sidney immortalized it in his sonnet sequence 'Astrophil and Stella' in the 1580s, and later Jonathan Swift famously used it as a pseudonym for Esther Johnson, the great companion of his life.
Estella — Astella's closest literary cousin — entered the popular imagination through Charles Dickens' 'Great Expectations' (1861), where Estella Havisham is the cold, beautiful ward of the jilted Miss Havisham, raised to break men's hearts. Dickens may have drawn the name from 'stella,' imbuing his character with a star's distant, unreachable quality. The name thus carries a powerful literary shadow — beautiful but complex, admired from afar.
Astella feels like a contemporary reaching past Estella toward something wilder and more original — a star name for an age fascinated with the cosmos. It occupies space alongside Astraea, Astrid, and Estelle while remaining distinct from all of them. The 'A' opening gives it an expansive feel, and the triple-syllable rhythm — As-tel-la — is balanced and memorable. In an era when celestial names from Luna to Nova to Lyra have surged in popularity, Astella offers parents a choice that feels both classically rooted and genuinely uncommon.