Makala
Feminine · “who is like God?”
Makala is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 3,398 girls against 5 boys since 1880.
Makala writes Makayla without the glide in the middle. The commoner spelling has a y doing the work of a small extra sound between the vowels; take it out and the name loses nothing an English speaker would notice, which is why both spellings have survived side by side.
How old is the name Makala?
Makala first appears in US birth records in 1971 — 54 years ago. The typical Makala alive today was born around 2000, making them about 25 years old. About 3,400 people named Makala are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Makala most popular?
Makala peaked in 1998, reaching #775 nationally. See the whole 1998 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Michaela to Makala
The story of Makala
This name's family produced more spellings in one generation than almost anything else in the American record. Michaela, Mikayla, Makayla, Mikaela, Micaela, Makaela, Mackayla, Makala — every combination of the front vowel, the consonant and the glide was tried, and a good number of them charted. The reason is that the name arrived in America mostly by ear rather than by book: it came through speech, through other people's children, and each family wrote down what it heard. Makala is one of the leanest results, and in the American record it is given to boys as well as girls.
Meaning
who is like God?
The name behind the whole family is a rhetorical question rather than a statement. Every spelling in the group carries it, and none of them changes it.
How the name formed
- Michaela
- Makayla
- Makala
Related forms: Makala · Michaela
Pronouncing Makala
muh-KAY-luh
Three syllables with the weight in the middle. Some families use muh-KAH-luh, with the vowel of father, and both are in ordinary use.
Nicknames for Makala
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
- 1971
- Most girls named
- 1998277 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #775reached in 1998
- Change vs 2021
- −16.7%5 in 2022, from 6
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.
Makala in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Makala in Hawaiian — spelling variant
- Michaela in Latin — related form
Makalas among us
people named Makala are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Makala sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- It is shorter than every other spelling in its family while being said the same way.
- Kala and Kayla are ready short forms, each a standing name.
- Every sound in it is straightforward and the spelling follows the sound.
- There are at least eight live spellings of this name and every one of them will be tried on you.
- The middle vowel is genuinely unsettled between AY and AH.
- The spelling is recorded for boys as well as girls in the United States.
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Makala
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Makalas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,400 people named Makala are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Makala in 2025?
- Makala is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Makala with classmates?
- Makala will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More M names
The most-given names starting with M, all years combined.
Mary#125 · Margaret#112 · Michelle#465 · Melissa#419 · Maria#87 · Martha#712 · Marie#617 · Mildred#1962
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Makala? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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