Hyla
Feminine · “wood”
The Greek word for wood is also the Greek word for matter. Aristotle needed a term for the raw stuff a thing is made of, and reached for hyle — timber — because timber was the obvious example of material waiting to be given a shape. Two and a half thousand years of philosophy rest on a word for a plank.
How old is the name Hyla?
Hyla first appears in US birth records in 1904 — 121 years ago. The typical Hyla alive today was born around 1952, making them about 73 years old. About 300 people named Hyla are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Hyla most popular?
Hyla peaked in 1904, reaching #1877 nationally. Today it ranks #11932, 10,055 places below that high. See the whole 1904 chart.
Where it comes from
From hyle to Hyla
The story of Hyla
Aristotle's pairing of hyle and morphe — matter and form — is one of the load-bearing ideas of western thought, and the word he chose was entirely ordinary. Timber is material that has not yet been made into anything; that is exactly the concept, and Latin translated it as materia, which is itself from a word for the trunk of a tree. So both the Greek and the Latin philosophical terms for matter come from words about wood, independently, for the same reason. The tree frogs got the name much later from naturalists reaching for the Greek for a wood-dweller. The masculine Hylas belongs to the Argonauts: a young companion of Heracles who went for water and was pulled under by nymphs.
Meaningscholars disagree
wood, forest; matter
Greek hyle means wood, a forest, and by philosophical extension matter or material. Hyla is also the scientific name of the tree frog genus, taken from the same word. As a personal name it may derive from either, or from Hylas, the masculine name in the Greek myth, or be an American formation.
How the name formed
- hyle
- Hyla
Pronouncing Hyla
HY-luh
Two syllables, stress on the first, with the first vowel as in eye. HEE-lah, following the Greek, is occasionally used. The English reading of the letters is the commoner one by a long way.
Nicknames for Hyla
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
- 1904
- Most girls named
- 193115 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1877reached in 1904
- Change vs 2024
- −30.0%7 in 2025, from 10
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.
Hylas among us
people named Hyla are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 229,610 born in 2025 was named Hyla
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Hyla
- #11932
- Hyla on the 2025 chart
- #935
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Hyla went to 7 girls in 2025, but Hila is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 25, which makes it the 935th most-given girls’ name of the year — 10,997 places above the chart.
- Hila18
- Hyla7
About 1 girl in 64,291 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 229,610 for Hyla 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
Fashion outlook
Hyla 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
Hyla beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Hyla in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A documented Greek word with descendants in philosophy and in zoology.
- Four letters and two syllables, with nothing to explain.
- It is genuinely rare, so a child will almost certainly never meet another.
- Very few people carry it and almost all of them are old, so it reads as of another century.
- It is the scientific name of a genus of frogs, which anyone who looks it up will find first.
- It is close enough to Hila, Lyla and Kyla to be misheard as any of them.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Hyla to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Hyla? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Hyla
Feminine · #11932 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Hylas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 300 people named Hyla are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Hyla?
- Hyla is one of 2 recorded spellings. Hila is the more common one — 18 births in 2025 against 7 for Hyla.
- How popular is the name Hyla in 2025?
- Hyla ranks #11932 among US girl names in 2025, with 7 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Hyla?
- About 1 in every 229,610 US girls born in 2025 was named Hyla — 7 in all.
- Will my child share the name Hyla with classmates?
- Hyla will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Hyla
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Vina#11932 · Retta#11932 · Missouri#11932 · Iola#11932 · Eddie#11932 · Thomas#11932 · Louetta#11932 · Elvina#11932
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Hyla? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Hyla and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle