Diminutive of names ending in -rilla; possibly from German meaning small brook or stream.
Rilla has two distinct origin streams that flow together beautifully. In some traditions it derives from the Dutch and Flemish "ril" — a small stream or brook — giving it an almost onomatopoeic naturalness, a name that sounds like water moving over stones. In others, it functions as a short form of longer names: Marilla, Amarilla, or Priscilla.
Either way, it lands with a lightness uncommon in names of its era. M. Montgomery published *Rilla of Ingleside*, the final book in the Anne of Green Gables series.
Rilla Blythe — full name Bertha Marilla, nicknamed after the beloved Marilla Cuthbert — carries the emotional weight of World War One on the home front of Prince Edward Island. Montgomery made Rilla a coming-of-age story about sacrifice, grief, and quiet heroism, and the novel became deeply important to Canadian national memory. The name acquired that particular literary gravity that only a beloved character can bestow.
Outside the Montgomery novels Rilla remained rare throughout the twentieth century, used occasionally by families with Canadian or Dutch roots. Today it occupies an interesting niche: short, complete, and melodic, it fits the current taste for brief vintage names without sounding invented. For readers who grew up with the Anne books it carries an immediate emotional resonance; for everyone else it simply sounds like a fresh discovery.
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