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Milah

Feminine · “dear”

1997high 2018
#1684 in the U.S.stepping back from its peak
falling122 girls in 2025

Milah is Mila with an h, and Mila is dear in the Slavic languages — mil, the ordinary word for kind or gracious, which closes Ludmila and Milena.

How old is the name Milah?

Milah first appears in US birth records in 1997 — 28 years ago. The typical Milah is a kid of about 8 — this name's wave is very recent. About 2,900 people named Milah are estimated to be alive in the US today.

When was the name Milah most popular?

Milah peaked in 2018, reaching #1075 nationally. Today it ranks #1684, 609 places below that high. See the whole 2018 chart.

Compare this nameMore “M” names

Lists built from the same records:

I

Where it comes from

The story of Milah

Mil is among the most productive elements in Slavic naming and closes dozens of compounds. Mila rose sharply in American naming from the 2000s, helped by a Ukrainian-American actress, and the respelled Milah followed. It appears in the American registers in the 2010s and is in current use.

Meaningscholars disagree

dear, gracious

Usually read from the Slavic mil, 'dear', 'kind' or 'gracious', which gives Milan, Milena and Ludmila. A second route runs through the Spanish and Italian Camila. The Hebrew milah, 'word' or 'circumcision', is a separate word and not the source. The Slavic reading is the commonest.

How the name formed

  1. mil
  2. Mila
  3. Milah

Related forms: Mila · Мила · Milena

Pronouncing Milah

MEE-lah

Two syllables, stress on the first. Milah and Mila are said identically; the h is silent.

Nicknames for Milah

Moderate

MiThe front sound alone, used inside families rather than generally
MillyA related short form, and a name in its own right that is fashionable now
II

What the data says

The long climb, and where it stands now

GIRLS NAMED · 1997–2025236118023612219972025

US babies named Milah per year from 1997 to 2025
AVERAGE RANK BY DECADE#1#10#100#1000#10751990s2020s

The same years in position rather than babies

First recorded
1997
Most girls named
2018236 — the highest on record
Peak rank
#1075reached in 2018
Change vs 2024
−14.7%122 in 2025, from 143
Milah is past its biggest year. The count topped out at 236 girls in 2018 and has eased 48% since — the slow half of a naming cycle, where a name stays familiar while getting steadily less common. The move since 2024: down 14.7%.

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.

Milah in other languages

The same name elsewhere

  • Mila in English — spelling variant
  • Мила in Russian — transliteration
  • Milena in Czech — related form

Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.

Milahs among us

2,900

people named Milah are estimated to be alive in the US today

About 1 girl in 13,174 born in 2025 was named Milah

Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method

Spellings of Milah

#1684
Milah on the 2025 chart
#22
counting every spelling

The SSA counts spellings, not names. Milah went to 122 girls in 2025, but Mila, Myla and Mylah 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 — 1,662 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 13,174 for Milah 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

III

Is it right for you

The Halee test

Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Milah's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Halee climbed just as high around 2000, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Halee's path sketches the road Milah is walking now.

40%chance Milah will feel “very 2020s” by 2040
Milah, aligned on its peakHalee· peak 2000not yet written
#1#10#100#1000peak-30 yrs+20 yrsHalee · #13101Milah today
Milah today is about where Halee stood in 2007 — 7 years past a #1075-sized peak. By 2022, Halee had settled around #13101.
Ages quietlysteadyDates fast

Milah 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

Where Milah is headed

19972030

US babies named Milah per year, 1997 to 2025, with a projection to 2030

Milah is easing off slowly — about 16% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.

Cooling-16% by 2030projected around #2,011 in 2030

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.

Milah beside its neighbors

The names ranked closest to Milah in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.

Milahthis name122#1684Nechama122#1684Janae122#1684Jamila122#1684Soleia122#1684

US girls given each name in 2025.

The trade-off

Practical strengths
  • The dear meaning is transparent and belongs to a large Slavic name family.
  • Milly is available as a related short form with real currency.
  • Two clean syllables with no pronunciation risk.
What to consider
  • Mila is the standard spelling and the h adds nothing to the sound.
  • The Hebrew milah is a separate word often confused with it.
  • It is very new in this spelling.

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Milah

Feminine · #1684 in the U.S.

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Frequently asked

How many Milahs are there in the world?
No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,900 people named Milah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
How do you spell Milah?
Milah is one of 5 recorded spellings. Mila is the more common one — 4,796 births in 2025 against 122 for Milah.
How popular is the name Milah in 2025?
Milah ranks #1684 among US girl names in 2025, with 122 babies given the name.
How rare is the name Milah?
About 1 in every 13,174 US girls born in 2025 was named Milah — 122 in all.
Will my child share the name Milah with classmates?
Milah will almost certainly be the only one in school.

Ranked beside Milah

Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.

Nechama#1684 · Janae#1684 · Jamila#1684 · Soleia#1684 · Francis#1684 · Aadya#1684 · Maliah#1684 · Tahlia#1692

Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Milah? See the current top 100.

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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology

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