Likely from 'twilight,' evoking the soft light between day and night; a poetic American coinage.
Twila is a genuinely American name — not a transplant from Europe or a biblical revival, but a name that emerged from the creative naming traditions of the American frontier and rural South in the late nineteenth century. Its most plausible etymology connects it to *twilight*, that liminal hour between day and night that has always carried poetic and spiritual resonance. The prefix *twi-* in Old English means "between two" or "divided," so twilight literally means the light between — a beautiful metaphor to bequeath a daughter.
Some scholars have also suggested a connection to the musical term *twill* (a weaving pattern) or to the Welsh *tywyll* (meaning "dark"), though the twilight connection remains the most intuitive and poetically satisfying. The name was most popular in the United States between roughly 1900 and 1940, when invented and nature-adjacent names were fashionable in rural communities that valued individuality and lyricism in naming. It had a particularly strong presence in Midwestern and Appalachian communities.
Twila Paris, the Christian contemporary music artist who rose to prominence in the 1980s and 1990s, is perhaps the most widely known modern bearer, and her warm, sincere artistry is very much in keeping with the name's character. Twila carries a gentle, slightly dreamy quality — soft on the ear, evoking something between magic hour light and quiet night. Its rarity today gives it the quality of a found treasure, a distinctly American name that feels both old-fashioned and unexpectedly fresh.