La Bella is a nickname surname — one of many Italian surnames that emerged from the medieval practice of designating a beautiful or handsome person with an epithet that eventually became hereditary. The name is found throughout southern Italy but is particularly concentrated in Sicily and Calabria. In Sicily, La Bella and Labella appear from at least the 15th century in Aragonese administrative records.
The Italian-American immigrant community brought the name to the United States in large numbers during 1880–1924, and it is common in New York, New Jersey, and the industrial cities of the Northeast and Midwest. The name retains its two-word form La Bella in Italian official documents but is often written as one word (Labella) in American records.
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