Caila
Feminine
The final -a is the only feminine ending English really has, and it is borrowed. Latin marked feminine nouns with -a, the Romance languages kept it, and English took it in with names rather than as grammar — which is why Kayla, Layla, Mila, Isla and Caila all read as female without any rule saying so.
How old is the name Caila?
Caila first appears in US birth records in 1985 — 40 years ago. The typical Caila alive today was born around 2000, making them about 25 years old. About 1,300 people named Caila are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Caila most popular?
Caila peaked in 1999, reaching #2258 nationally. Today it ranks #7491, 5,233 places below that high. See the whole 1999 chart.
Where it comes from
From Kayla to Caila
Our story of Caila
English has no grammatical gender, which leaves names with almost nothing to signal sex. What survives is a single vowel. Latin ended feminine nouns in -a, Italian and Spanish still do, and English absorbed the pattern through names borrowed from Latin and the Romance languages — Julia, Clara, Maria, Laura — until an unstressed final -a on a personal name read as female by default. That is now the strongest signal available, strong enough to work on names with no history at all: a made-up word ending in -a will be read as a woman's name by almost every English speaker. Caila, peaking in 1999, rests entirely on it. Everything else about the name is open — the origin of Kayla is genuinely disputed, and the C spelling adds nothing — but the final vowel does all the work that needs doing.
Meaningnot established
Not established
No settled source. Caila is a respelling of Kayla, itself of uncertain origin — variously explained as a clipping of Michaela, a respelling of a Yiddish name Kayle related to Hebrew Kelilah, a crown, and an independent modern coinage. The C spelling changes nothing audible. No documented meaning attaches to Caila specifically.
How the name formed
- Kayla
- Caila
Related forms: Kayla · Kaila
Pronouncing Caila
KAY-lah
Two syllables, stress on the first. Some families say KYE-lah, reading the ai as the vowel of aisle; both are in use, and the spelling does not decide.
Nicknames for Caila
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1985
- Most girls named
- 199966 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2258reached in 1999
- Change vs 2024
- +7.7%14 in 2025, from 13
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Caila in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Kayla in English — spelling variant
- Kaila in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York, California.
Cailas among us
people named Caila are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 114,805 born in 2025 was named Caila
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Caila
- #7491
- Caila on the 2025 chart
- #303
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Caila went to 14 girls in 2025, but Kayla, Kaila and Kaylah and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 8 spellings went to 1,044, which makes it the 303rd most-given girls’ name of the year — 7,188 places above the chart.
and 1 rarer spelling.
About 1 girl in 1,540 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 114,805 for Caila itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Aesha test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Caila's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Aesha climbed just as high around 1977, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Aesha's path sketches the road Caila is walking now.
Caila sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Caila beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Caila in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is short, soft and easy for a child to say and write.
- It sits in a very large, familiar sound family.
- The final -a marks it clearly as a girl's name.
- Kayla and Kaila are far more common and will be substituted.
- The spelling supports two different pronunciations.
- There is no meaning to give behind the name.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Caila
Feminine · #7491 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Cailas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,300 people named Caila are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Caila?
- Caila is one of 7 recorded spellings. Kayla is the more common one — 838 births in 2025 against 14 for Caila.
- How popular is the name Caila in 2025?
- Caila ranks #7491 among US girl names in 2025, with 14 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Caila?
- About 1 in every 114,805 US girls born in 2025 was named Caila — 14 in all.
- Will my child share the name Caila with classmates?
- Caila will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Caila
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Christie#7491 · Carmelita#7491 · Jetta#7491 · Hildegard#7491 · Rickie#7491 · Billy#7491 · Angelyn#7491 · Jewell#7491
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Caila? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Caila and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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