Hela comes from Norse mythology as the name of the ruler of the underworld, related to the goddess Hel.
Hela (also spelled Hel) is one of the most dramatic names in the Norse cosmological tradition. In Old Norse mythology, Hel was the daughter of the trickster god Loki and the giantess Angrboða, appointed by Odin to rule over Niflheim—the realm of the dead who died of illness, old age, or any cause other than combat. She was described as half living flesh and half corpse-pale or blue-black, a visual embodiment of the boundary between life and death.
Her name is directly cognate with the Proto-Germanic *halja*, meaning "concealed place," which is also the linguistic root of the English word *hell*, though Niflheim was a far more ambiguous domain than the Christian underworld it later influenced. In the medieval Icelandic *Prose Edda* compiled by Snorri Sturluson, Hela is a figure of cold impartiality rather than malice—she receives the dead and keeps them, as neutral as winter. This moral complexity distinguishes her from many mythological death figures and has made her enduringly fascinating to scholars of comparative religion.
The name experienced a massive surge in popular recognition through Marvel Comics and the 2017 film *Thor: Ragnarok*, where Hela was portrayed as a powerful antagonist, reintroducing the name to a global audience as synonymous with formidable, dark glamour. In Scandinavian countries, Hela and Hella have long functioned as conventional given names entirely separate from mythological freight—short, strong, and elegant. Parents today who choose Hela often embrace its mythological weight deliberately, drawn to a name that carries genuine ancient power without the ubiquity of names like Freya or Thor.