Ila has more than one root: in Sanskrit it is the name of a goddess of speech and means "earth", and in English it is read as a short form of names like Isla and Ileana. Its two-syllable simplicity puts it in the same family as Ava and Isla. Ila ranked number 3477 in the United States in 2000 and number 1186 in 2015, entered the top 1000 in 2020, peaked at number 622 in 2023 and ranks number 718 in 2025.