Milan
Feminine · Slavic roots · “Dear”
Milan is given to both — 9,557 girls and 18,608 boys since 1880. See Milan as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Two syllables, five letters, no silent anything — Milan travels well in almost any language that has vowels. It has been a steady men's name across Czech, Slovak, Serbian and Croatian for centuries, and it is also the English name of a great Italian city, which is how many American families first met it. The novelist Milan Kundera carried it out of Czechoslovakia and into world literature.
How old is the name Milan?
Milan first appears in US birth records in 1969 — 56 years ago. The typical Milan is a kid of about 11 — this name's wave is very recent. About 9,500 people named Milan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Milan most popular?
Milan peaked in 2013, reaching #593 nationally. Today it ranks #751, 158 places below that high. See the whole 2013 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From mil- (Slavic element, 'dear, gracious') to Milan
The story of Milan
Milan is one of the old Slavic compound-style names, rooted in mil- 'dear', and it has been in continuous use as a man's name in the Czech lands, Slovakia, Slovenia, Serbia and Croatia for many centuries. Quite separately, English speakers have long called the Lombard city Milano by the shorter form Milan, so the word was already familiar in America as a place before it was common as a name. In the United States the two lines have simply merged: the sound arrives ready-made, with Slavic history behind it and an Italian city beside it. The recent American wave is very much a wave — this is a name whose bearers here are mostly children, while in Central Europe it is a name of grandfathers.
Meaningscholars disagree
Dear, gracious, kind — from the Slavic element mil-
Two different names share this spelling. The Slavic given name is built on mil- 'dear, gracious', the same element behind Milena, Miloš and Milica; that reading is well established. But some American parents take the name from the Italian city, whose own name goes back to Latin Mediolanum, usually read as 'in the middle of the plain'. Which meaning belongs to a particular child depends entirely on which road the family walked in on.
How the name formed
- mil-Slavic element, 'dear, gracious'
- Milan
Related forms: Milan · Милан · Milan · Milen · Milana · Milano
Pronouncing Milan
mee-LAHN
Most American families say mee-LAHN, like the city. Czech, Slovak and Serbian speakers stress the first syllable: MEE-lahn. Both are correct for the name; expect to state your preference more than once.
Nicknames for Milan
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
- 1969
- Most girls named
- 2013479 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #593reached in 2013
- Change vs 2024
- −10.2%362 in 2025, from 403
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.
Milan in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Milan in Czech / Slovak — same name
- Милан in Serbian — transliteration
- Milan in Slovene / Croatian — same name
- Milen in Bulgarian — related form
- Milana in Russian / Serbian (feminine) — related form
- Milano in Italian (the city) — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Pennsylvania, California, New York.
Milans among us
people named Milan are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 4,440 born in 2025 was named Milan
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Georgina test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Milan's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Georgina climbed just as high around 1974, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Georgina's path sketches the road Milan is walking now.
Milan 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 Milan is headed
Milan should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High 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.
Milan beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Milan in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Short, phonetic and spelled the way it sounds in most European languages — one of the easier names to carry across borders.
- Also charts in Canada and France, so it is recognizable well beyond US records.
- Centuries of unbroken use across Czech, Slovak, Serbian, Croatian and Slovene naming, which gives it real depth behind a modern-sounding surface.
- Has ready-made short forms — Mila, Mile, Milo — that already exist in real use rather than needing invention.
- Two live pronunciations, mee-LAHN and MEE-lahn, both legitimate. Families with Slavic roots may say it one way and teachers another, and the correction becomes a small lifelong habit.
- Many people will hear the Italian city first and assume the name is a travel souvenir. That is a fine story if it is yours, and slightly tiring if it isn't.
- This spelling goes mostly to boys in US records, with a real minority of girls. A girl named Milan will meet forms and rosters that guessed wrong, which is manageable but worth expecting.
- It is climbing quickly. A child named Milan now is unlikely to share a classroom with another, but the name will be more familiar by the time they finish school than it is today.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Milan to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Milan? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Milan
Feminine · Slavic roots · #751 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Milans are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 9,500 people named Milan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Milan in 2025?
- Milan ranks #751 among US girl names in 2025, with 362 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Milan?
- About 1 in every 4,440 US girls born in 2025 was named Milan — 362 in all.
- Will my child share the name Milan with classmates?
- Milan will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Milan
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Bethany#751 · Adele#751 · Davina#749 · Karina#749 · Amaris#754 · Rynlee#755 · Mikayla#746 · Araceli#746
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Milan? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Milan and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
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
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle