Mila
Feminine · Slavic roots · “dear”
Mila is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 84,489 girls against 88 boys since 1880.
Mila is one of those short names with a long pedigree: the Slavic element mil-, "dear" or "gracious", has been carried inside names like Milena and Ludmila for well over a thousand years, and Mila is the piece that broke off and stood on its own. Two open vowels, two beats, and nothing in the spelling that needs explaining in most European languages.
How old is the name Mila?
Mila first appears in US birth records in 1881 — 144 years ago. The typical Mila is a kid of about 5 — this name's wave is very recent. About 83,500 people named Mila are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Mila most popular?
Mila peaked in 2018, reaching #14 nationally. Today it ranks #43, 29 places below that high. See the whole 2018 chart.
Where it comes from
From mil- (Slavic element: dear, gracious) to Mila
The story of Mila
The root is Slavic: mil-, meaning dear or gracious, which appears in old compound names such as Miloslav, Bogumila, Ludmila and Milena. Mila began as the affectionate short form of those names and became a full given name in its own right across Serbia, Croatia, Russia, Poland and the Czech lands. In English-speaking countries it arrived twice over — with Central and Eastern European families, and again as a tidy clipping of Emilia, Camila and Amelia, which is largely why its recent wave has been so steep. Spanish-speaking families reach it by a third route, as short for Milagros.
Meaning
dear, gracious, kind
The element mil- carries this sense across the Slavic languages. Worth knowing that Mila also reaches families by other roads: as a clipped form of Emilia, Camila or Amelia, and in Spanish-speaking families as a short form of Milagros, "miracles". The sound is the same; the family story behind it differs.
Cultural footprint
Mila Kunis (b. 1983) — That '70s Show and Black Swan star
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
How the name formed
- mil-Slavic element: dear, gracious
- Milena / Ludmila
- Mila
Related forms: Mila · Мила · Míla · Miła · Milena · Mila
Pronouncing Mila
MEE-lah
MEE-lah is the standard pronunciation and the one used in every language the name comes from. A second English pronunciation, MY-lah, circulates in the US, partly by analogy with the separate spelling Myla — so expect to correct people occasionally, whichever you choose.
Nicknames for Mila
High
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
- 1881
- Most girls named
- 20206,646 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #14reached in 2018
- Change vs 2022
- −26.1%4,796 in 2025, from 6,487
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.
Mila in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Mila in Serbian / Croatian — same name
- Мила in Russian — transliteration
- Míla in Czech — spelling variant
- Miła in Polish — spelling variant
- Milena in Slavic (longer form) — related form
- Mila in Spanish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida. INSEE rounds every published count to the nearest five for statistical confidentiality; the ranks are calculated from the exact figures. International figures from Statistics Canada, National Records of Scotland, Office for National Statistics, INSEE. Sources
Milas among us
people named Mila are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 335 born in 2025 was named Mila
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Mila
- #43
- Mila on the 2025 chart
- #22
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Mila went to 4,796 girls in 2025, but Myla, Mylah and Milah and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 7 spellings went to 6,889, which makes it the 22nd most-given girls’ name of the year — 21 places above the chart.
and 2 rarer spellings.
About 1 girl in 233 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 335 for Mila 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 Christine test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Mila's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Christine climbed just as high around 1967, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Christine's path sketches the road Mila is walking now.
Mila is coming down from a big peak (#14 in 2018). This is the stretch of the cycle where a name starts to sound like the decade it ruled.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Mila is headed
Mila should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium 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.
Mila beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Mila in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Four letters, spelled the way it sounds in English, Spanish and most Slavic languages — rarely needs to be repeated or spelled out.
- Works as a standalone name or as the short form of Emilia, Camila, Amelia, Milena or Milagros, which gives a longer formal option if you want one.
- Charts in Canada, Scotland, England & Wales and France as well as the US, so it crosses borders without translation.
- Documented in Slavic naming for centuries, so the name has real depth behind a very modern-sounding surface.
- Two pronunciations compete in the US, MEE-lah and MY-lah. Both are used; you will be the one who sets the default, and will sometimes have to reset it.
- It sits in a crowded sound-neighborhood — Mia, Milla, Myla, Ella, Layla, Amelia. Mail and roll calls may need a second look.
- The name's wave is genuinely recent, so nearly everyone who carries it in the US is a child. That reads young now and will simply read as a generation later on.
- Widely familiar without being unavoidable: a Mila will likely be the only one in her class, but no one will ask what the name is.
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What they receive
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Mila
Feminine · Slavic roots · #43 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Milas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 83,500 people named Mila are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Mila?
- Mila is the most-used spelling in US records — 4,796 of the 6,889 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Myla, Mylah, Milah and Milla.
- How popular is the name Mila in 2025?
- Mila ranks #43 among US girl names in 2025, with 4,796 babies given the name.
- How common is the name Mila?
- About 1 in every 335 US girls born in 2025 was named Mila — 4,796 in all.
- Will my child share the name Mila with classmates?
- Mila will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Mila
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Elena#42 · Willow#44 · Abigail#41 · Emilia#45 · Madison#40 · Nova#46 · Ivy#39 · Naomi#47
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Mila? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Mila and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration; international figures from national statistics agencies. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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