Makaila
Feminine · “Hebrew mi kha el”
One name generated more than thirty spellings in fifteen years. Michaela, Mikayla, Makayla, Mikaela, Makaila, McKayla, Michayla, Mikala: the feminine of Michael is the most fragmented name in the modern American record, and no single spelling ever held a clear majority of it. Makaila peaks in 2001, near the top of that wave.
How old is the name Makaila?
Makaila first appears in US birth records in 1979 — 46 years ago. The typical Makaila alive today was born around 2005, making them about 20 years old. About 4,700 people named Makaila are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Makaila most popular?
Makaila peaked in 2001, reaching #819 nationally. Today it ranks #8362, 7,543 places below that high. See the whole 2001 chart.
Where it comes from
From Michael to Makaila
The story of Makaila
Fragmentation of this scale distorts every popularity list. Counted as separate names, none of the spellings of this one reached the top twenty in most years. Counted as a sound, the name was among the largest given to American girls through the 1990s and early 2000s. The same problem affects Caitlin, Aaliyah, Jayden and Kaylee, and it means the published rankings systematically understate exactly the names that were most fashionable, because fashion is what drives respelling. There is a second effect worth noting: fragmentation is self-reinforcing. Once a name has ten spellings, choosing an eleventh costs nothing, because no spelling is standard and everyone will have to ask anyway. A name with one accepted spelling resists variation; a name that has already lost its standard cannot.
Meaning
Hebrew mi kha el, who is like God?
A feminine formed from Michael, Hebrew for who is like God, a rhetorical question expecting the answer nobody. Hebrew has no feminine of the name; Michaela and its relatives were built in Europe and America by adding a Latin -a. Makaila is one of a very large family of American respellings and has no separate origin. It peaks in 2001.
How the name formed
- Michael
- Michaela
- Makaila
Related forms: Michaela · Mikayla · Michaela
Pronouncing Makaila
muh-KAY-lah
Three syllables, stress on the second. Michaela is sometimes said mih-KY-lah with a different middle vowel, which the ae spelling encourages. Makaila fixes the KAY reading.
Nicknames for Makaila
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
- 1979
- Most girls named
- 2007310 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #819reached in 2001
- Change vs 2024
- −29.4%12 in 2025, from 17
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.
Makaila in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Michaela in English — spelling variant
- Mikayla in English — spelling variant
- Michaela in Czech — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: Florida, Texas, California.
Makailas among us
people named Makaila are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 133,939 born in 2025 was named Makaila
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Makaila
- #8362
- Makaila on the 2025 chart
- #478
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Makaila went to 12 girls in 2025, but Makayla, Makaylah and Mackayla are the same name said out loud. Together the 4 spellings went to 565, which makes it the 478th most-given girls’ name of the year — 7,884 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 2,845 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 133,939 for Makaila 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 Laurine test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Makaila's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Laurine climbed just as high around 1907, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Laurine's path sketches the road Makaila is walking now.
Makaila 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
Makaila beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Makaila in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The Hebrew meaning is settled and forceful.
- Kayla and Mika are two very different short forms.
- The spelling fixes a vowel the standard form leaves open.
- More than thirty spellings of this name are in use.
- It will be spelled out letter by letter for life.
- The name is closely dated to the 1990s and 2000s.
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What they receive
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Makaila
Feminine · #8362 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Makailas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 4,700 people named Makaila are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Makaila?
- Makaila is one of 4 recorded spellings. Makayla is the more common one — 530 births in 2025 against 12 for Makaila.
- How popular is the name Makaila in 2025?
- Makaila ranks #8362 among US girl names in 2025, with 12 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Makaila?
- About 1 in every 133,939 US girls born in 2025 was named Makaila — 12 in all.
- Will my child share the name Makaila with classmates?
- Makaila will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Makaila
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Lona#8362 · Peggy#8362 · Leda#8362 · Margarette#8362 · Rella#8362 · Evalena#8362 · Vashti#8362 · Nona#8362
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Makaila? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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