Kyla
Feminine · Scottish Gaelic roots · “most often read as "narrow”
Kyla is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 43,674 girls against 29 boys since 1880.
Kyla comes out of a Scottish word for a narrow strait of water — the same root that gave the surname and first name Kyle, and the place name Kyle of Lochalsh. In the mouth it is two clean syllables, the first one the sound of "sky" without its s. It has been on American records long enough to belong to grown women as well as small girls, and it has never needed spelling twice for anyone who already knows Kyle.
How old is the name Kyla?
Kyla first appears in US birth records in 1940 — 85 years ago. The typical Kyla alive today was born around 2004, making them about 21 years old. About 43,000 people named Kyla are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kyla most popular?
Kyla peaked in 2004, reaching #162 nationally. Today it ranks #579, 417 places below that high. See the whole 2004 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From caol (Scottish Gaelic, "narrow") to Kyla
The story of Kyla
The oldest part of the name is Gaelic geography: caol, a narrows, which named stretches of Scottish coast and a district of Ayrshire before it named any person. From those places came the surname Kyle, which crossed to North America with Scottish and Ulster families and, like many surnames, was eventually handed out as a first name. Kyla is the English-language feminine of it, formed the plain way with an -a, the same way Michaela and Nicola were built. It settled into American use in the twentieth century and has stayed, rising and easing back without ever disappearing.
Meaningscholars disagree
most often read as "narrow, strait" (from the Scottish Gaelic behind Kyle)
Two readings compete. The first treats Kyla as a feminine form of Kyle, from Scottish Gaelic caol, "narrow" — the word behind sea-narrows like the Kyle of Lochalsh and the region of Kyle in Ayrshire. The second treats it as a variant within the Kayla group, where the meaning is itself unsettled. Both are ordinary, respectable accounts; neither has won.
How the name formed
- caolScottish Gaelic, "narrow"
- Kyleplace name and surname
- Kylegiven name
- Kyla
Related forms: Kyle · Kayla · Kylah · Kila
Pronouncing Kyla
KY-luh
Stress on the first syllable, which rhymes with "my". Occasionally someone will try KEE-luh on first sight, by analogy with Kira or Kila, so a small correction now and then is likely.
Nicknames for Kyla
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
- 1940
- Most girls named
- 20042,038 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #162reached in 2004
- Change vs 2023
- −2.8%512 in 2025, from 527
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.
Kyla in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Kyle in English — related form
- Kayla in English — related form
- Kylah in English — spelling variant
- Kila in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Kylas among us
people named Kyla are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 3,139 born in 2025 was named Kyla
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Kyla
- #579
- Kyla on the 2025 chart
- #423
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Kyla went to 512 girls in 2025, but Kylah, Kilah and Khyla and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 6 spellings went to 676, which makes it the 423rd most-given girls’ name of the year — 156 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 2,378 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 3,139 for Kyla 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 Jacquelyn test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kyla's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Jacquelyn climbed just as high around 1951, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Jacquelyn's path sketches the road Kyla is walking now.
Kyla 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
Where Kyla is headed
Kyla should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Kyla beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kyla in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The spelling follows directly from Kyle, a name nearly every English speaker already knows how to read and write.
- Two syllables, one stress, no silent letters — it survives being called across a playground or read off a form.
- A ready short form in Ky, already in circulation rather than invented on the spot.
- Common enough to be recognized on sight, uncommon enough that a class is unlikely to hold two.
- Kyla and Kayla live very close together in sound, and Kayla has been the better-known of the pair for decades. Expect the occasional mis-hearing over the phone and the odd letter addressed to Kayla.
- Kylah, Kila and Kyleigh all exist, so the spelling will sometimes be guessed at even though yours is the most straightforward one.
- The meaning is not settled — a pleasure for anyone who likes a name with two stories, less satisfying if you wanted a single line to tell relatives.
- It rose and has been easing back, which tends to place a name most thickly among young adults rather than newborns — noticeable if you would rather your daughter's name read as fresh to her generation.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Kyla
Feminine · Scottish Gaelic roots · #579 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kylas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 43,000 people named Kyla are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Kyla?
- Kyla is the most-used spelling in US records — 512 of the 676 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Kylah, Kilah, Khyla, Khylah and Kila.
- How popular is the name Kyla in 2025?
- Kyla ranks #579 among US girl names in 2025, with 512 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kyla?
- About 1 in every 3,139 US girls born in 2025 was named Kyla — 512 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kyla with classmates?
- Kyla will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kyla
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Imani#579 · Jimena#578 · Cleo#577 · Kailany#581 · Reina#582 · Mckenzie#576 · Noemi#583 · Cali#574
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kyla? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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