Mica
Feminine · “a crumb”
Mica is given to both — 2,713 girls and 982 boys since 1880. See Mica as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Mica is a mineral that splits into sheets so thin you can see through them, and the Latin word behind it means a crumb. It is also a short form of Micah and Michaela, which is a different name entirely. Its American peak on girls is 1970, in the middle of the fashion for short mineral and nature names.
How old is the name Mica?
Mica first appears in US birth records in 1952 — 73 years ago. The typical Mica alive today was born around 1989, making them about 36 years old. About 2,600 people named Mica are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Mica most popular?
Mica peaked in 1970, reaching #1343 nationally. Today it ranks #5917, 4,574 places below that high. See the whole 1970 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From mica to Mica
The story of Mica
Mineral and stone names for girls arrived in the nineteenth century with the jewel names — Ruby, Pearl, Opal, Beryl, Garnet — and returned in the 1960s and 1970s in a different register, with Crystal, Amber, Jade and Mica. Mica has a practical history behind it: sheets of it were used as furnace windows and lamp chimneys before heat-resistant glass, and it was called isinglass in nineteenth-century America. The parallel use as a short form of Micah is unrelated and belongs to a different naming tradition, though the two spellings meet in the American record.
Meaningscholars disagree
a crumb; the mineral that flakes into sheets
Latin mica means a crumb or a grain, and the mineral was named from it in the eighteenth century — possibly with influence from micare, 'to glitter', which suits the material better. Both derivations are proposed and the crumb is the more likely. Separately, Mica serves as a short form of Micah, Hebrew Mikhah, 'who is like Yahweh?', and of Michaela. The spelling gives no way to tell which a bearer carries.
How the name formed
- mica
- mica
- Mica
Related forms: Micah · Mica · Mika
Pronouncing Mica
MY-kuh
Two syllables, stress on the first, with the long i of mine — exactly as the mineral. A second saying, MEE-kuh, is also common and follows the Mika spelling and the European reading of the letters. Both circulate in American use.
Nicknames for Mica
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
- 1952
- Most girls named
- 1989104 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1343reached in 1970
- Change vs 2024
- +11.1%20 in 2025, from 18
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.
Mica in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Micah in English — related form
- Mica in Spanish — same name
- Mika in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California.
Micas among us
people named Mica are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 80,363 born in 2025 was named Mica
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Mica
- #5917
- Mica on the 2025 chart
- #486
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Mica went to 20 girls in 2025, but Micah, Mika and Myka and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 7 spellings went to 555, which makes it the 486th most-given girls’ name of the year — 5,431 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 2,896 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 80,363 for Mica 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 Jenell test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Mica's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Jenell climbed just as high around 1938, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Jenell's path sketches the road Mica is walking now.
Mica 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
Mica beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Mica in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Four letters, two syllables, and spellable by anyone who hears it.
- It works on either sex with no built-in gender signal.
- The mineral behind it is concrete and easy to explain.
- Two pronunciations circulate, MY-kuh and MEE-kuh, and the spelling does not settle which.
- It is close to Micah, Mika and Mia and will be misheard as any of them.
- It is an ordinary mineral name, which some people find plain.
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What they receive
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Mica
Feminine · #5917 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Micas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,600 people named Mica are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Mica?
- Mica is one of 7 recorded spellings. Micah is the more common one — 291 births in 2025 against 20 for Mica.
- How popular is the name Mica in 2025?
- Mica ranks #5917 among US girl names in 2025, with 20 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Mica?
- About 1 in every 80,363 US girls born in 2025 was named Mica — 20 in all.
- Will my child share the name Mica with classmates?
- Mica will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Mica
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Elda#5917 · Saloma#5917 · Fawn#5917 · Sarafina#5917 · Jaymie#5917 · Jania#5917 · Kimberlynn#5917 · Patsy#5917
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Mica? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Mica and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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