Meaning: Its source is Yoela, a Hebrew name meaning "Yaweh is God."

Nicknames: Jody, Joe and Joey

Popularity: The name Joella ranked 2615th in popularity for females of all ages in a sample of the 1990 US Census.

Though this name appears on the 1990 U.S. Census lists, it is used by only a small percentage of the general population.

Narrative: The four letters ''Y H W H'' (in their Hebrew forms) were inserted in the texts of the Jewish scriptures to represent the name of God, which was not allowed to be written, and was only to be uttered by priests at prescribed times during worship in the temple.

This ''Tetragrammaton,'' as it came to be called (from the Greek word for the number four, tetra), was often read as Adonai (Lord).

In time it came to be pronounced ''Yaweh.'' As Yoela is based on the Tetragrammaton, it could be read as ''God is God'' -- an affirmation that the God of the Jewish scriptures is the one and only God.