Kaela
Feminine · “who is like God?”
Kaela has a genuine parent hiding in plain sight. Michaela is said mi-KAY-la in English, and clipping the unstressed first syllable leaves exactly this name. That is an ordinary way for names to form — it is how Lisa came off Elisabeth and Tony off Antonio — and it gives Kaela a real ancestry that its Kayla-family neighbors lack. Its peak is 1996.
How old is the name Kaela?
Kaela first appears in US birth records in 1967 — 58 years ago. The typical Kaela alive today was born around 1997, making them about 28 years old. About 6,300 people named Kaela are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kaela most popular?
Kaela peaked in 1996, reaching #648 nationally. Today it ranks #6116, 5,468 places below that high. See the whole 1996 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Mikha'el to Kaela
The story of Kaela
Aphesis — the loss of an unstressed initial syllable — is one of the standard ways European names shorten, and English has done it constantly: Elizabeth to Lisa and Beth, Antonio to Tony, Alexander to Sander, Michaela to Kaela. The result usually becomes an independent name within a generation. Michaela entered American use in the 1970s and was in the top two hundred by the 1990s, which is exactly when Kaela appears in numbers. Kayla, a separate and much more popular name of uncertain origin, was at its own height in the same years, and the two have been confused ever since.
Meaningscholars disagree
who is like God?
If the name is a clipping of Michaela, it inherits the meaning of Michael: Hebrew Mikha'el, a rhetorical question — mi, 'who', kha, 'like', el, 'God' — whose expected answer is nobody. That is a settled etymology. The competing reading makes Kaela a respelling of Kayla, whose own origin has never been established. The clipping route is the more likely for this spelling and is not documented.
How the name formed
- Mikha'el
- Michaela
- Kaela
Related forms: Kayla · Michaela · Mikhaela
Pronouncing Kaela
KAY-luh
Two syllables, stress on the first, with the long a of day. A three-syllable kah-EH-lah is also heard, treating the ae as two vowels; the two-syllable version is much the more common.
Nicknames for Kaela
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
- 1967
- Most girls named
- 1996345 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #648reached in 1996
- Change vs 2024
- −20.8%19 in 2025, from 24
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.
Kaela in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Kayla in English — related form
- Michaela in English — related form
- Mikhaela in Hebrew — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Kaelas among us
people named Kaela are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 84,593 born in 2025 was named Kaela
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Venita test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kaela's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Venita climbed just as high around 1960, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Venita's path sketches the road Kaela is walking now.
Kaela 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
Kaela beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kaela in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Michaela is available as a formal version with a settled meaning.
- Ella is a very popular name available inside it as a short form.
- The spelling is short and easy to write.
- Kayla, Kaela, Kaila and Kaylah all circulate and hers will rarely be guessed.
- Two pronunciations are possible from this spelling.
- The descent from Michaela is likely but not documented.
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What they receive
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Kaela
Feminine · #6116 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kaelas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 6,300 people named Kaela are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Kaela in 2025?
- Kaela ranks #6116 among US girl names in 2025, with 19 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kaela?
- About 1 in every 84,593 US girls born in 2025 was named Kaela — 19 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kaela with classmates?
- Kaela will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kaela
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Alvina#6116 · Mena#6116 · Harvey#6116 · Kellie#6116 · Alden#6116 · Jeanna#6116 · Sammi#6116 · Mamie#6116
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kaela? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Kaela and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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