From Old Norse 'súla' meaning sun or gannet bird; also a literary name from Toni Morrison.
Sula operates on at least three registers simultaneously: as a diminutive of Ursula (from Latin ursa, "bear"), as a Norse word for the gannet, a spectacular seabird known for its dramatic high-speed dives into the ocean (which gives its name to the Sula archipelago in Norway), and most powerfully in contemporary cultural memory, as the title character of Toni Morrison's 1973 novel. Each layer enriches the name with distinct character — animistic strength, geographic rootedness, and literary depth. Morrison's Sula Peace is one of American literature's most complex protagonists: a Black woman who refuses the available scripts for womanhood in 1920s Ohio, who is alternately condemned and needed by her community, who lives experimentally and pays for it, and who is loved with the fierce ambivalence that truly free people sometimes provoke.
Morrison chose the name with care — short, unusual, capable of carrying the weight of an entire argument about freedom, community, and the cost of self-determination. The novel was a finalist for the National Book Award and has never gone out of print. It is studied in high schools and universities, and the name Sula carries its resonance.
Apart from Morrison's novel, Sula has Scandinavian coastal associations: in Norwegian communities, the gannet's name was occasionally borrowed for girls as a nature name in the tradition of Björk (birch), Lind (lime tree), or Falk (falcon). Today Sula appeals to parents who want a name that is brief and striking, with literary or geographical roots that reward inquiry. It sounds ancient and modern at once, simple on the surface and layered underneath.