Mica
Masculine · “who is like the Lord?”
Mica is given to both — 982 boys and 2,713 girls since 1880. See Mica as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Mica is a spelling of Micah and also the mineral — a Latin word for a crumb or grain, later attached to the flaky stone.
How old is the name Mica?
Mica first appears in US birth records in 1959 — 66 years ago. The typical Mica alive today was born around 2001, making them about 24 years old. About 900 people named Mica are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Mica most popular?
Mica peaked in 1979, reaching #1903 nationally. Today it ranks #4396, 2,493 places below that high. See the whole 1979 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Mica
Ours, offered as ours. The mineral's name is a small joke of Latin: mica means a crumb, and the stone splits into flakes, so it was named for what it does. Then the resemblance to micare, to glitter, reinforced it — the naming may be a pun that hardened. The Hebrew Micah is a rhetorical question with no relation to any of it. One spelling, a prophet and a rock, and no connection whatever.
Meaningscholars disagree
who is like the Lord?; or a crumb
Hebrew Mikha contracts a question — who is like the Lord — and gives Micah. Latin mica means a crumb or grain and names the mineral, probably by association with micare, to glitter. The two are unrelated.
Pronouncing Mica
MY-kah
Two syllables, first stressed. Mica and Micah are said identically.
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
- 1959
- Most boys named
- 197928 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1903reached in 1979
- Change vs 2024
- −17.9%23 in 2025, from 28
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 — spelling variant
- Mikha in Hebrew — related form
- Mica in Latin — related form
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 boy in 74,264 born in 2025 was named Mica
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Mica
- #4396
- Mica on the 2025 chart
- #84
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Mica went to 23 boys in 2025, but Micah, Mikah and Mykah and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 7 spellings went to 4,065, which makes it the 84th most-given boys’ name of the year — 4,312 places above the chart.
and 1 rarer spelling.
About 1 boy in 420 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 74,264 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 Carvin 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: Carvin climbed just as high around 1951, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Carvin'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 boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled meaning that is a complete question with a known answer.
- Four letters and two syllables, about as easy to write as a name gets.
- Read correctly on sight by every English speaker.
- Micah is the standard spelling of the name and will be written for him.
- The mineral is a strong association and shares the spelling exactly.
- It is used for both sexes, so forms may guess wrong.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Mica
Masculine · #4396 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 900 people named Mica are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Mica?
- Mica is one of 6 recorded spellings. Micah is the more common one — 3,817 births in 2025 against 23 for Mica.
- How popular is the name Mica in 2025?
- Mica ranks #4396 among US boy names in 2025, with 23 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Mica?
- About 1 in every 74,264 US boys born in 2025 was named Mica — 23 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.
Odell#4396 · Corwin#4396 · Tennyson#4396 · Marques#4396 · Manu#4396 · Omid#4396 · Zackariah#4396 · Burton#4396
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Mica? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Mica and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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