Mykayla
Feminine · “Hebrew mi kael”
One sound, two family trees. Spell it Mikayla and it is a feminine of Michael; spell it McKayla and it is an Irish surname; and the parents choose which by writing the name down.
How old is the name Mykayla?
Mykayla first appears in US birth records in 1989 — 36 years ago. The typical Mykayla alive today was born around 2003, making them about 22 years old. About 2,700 people named Mykayla are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Mykayla most popular?
Mykayla peaked in 1999, reaching #1054 nationally. Today it ranks #10107, 9,053 places below that high. See the whole 1999 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Mikael to Mykayla
The story of Mykayla
The sound came first and the analysis followed. By the 1990s Americans had a very common girl's name whose spelling nobody agreed on, and two entirely different origins were available for it. Michaela, from Michael, gave Michaela, Mikayla, Mikaela and Mykayla; the Irish and Scottish surname pattern gave Mckayla, Makayla and Mackayla, treating the opening as the Mc that means son of. The two families have nothing in common except their sound, and a birth certificate has to pick a side. That is unusual: most names arrive with a history attached, and here the history is chosen at the moment of spelling. The Mc- reading has the additional oddity that it makes a girl's name out of a word meaning son.
Meaningscholars disagree
Hebrew mi kael, who is like God
Mykayla is one of many American spellings of a name that has two competing analyzes: Michaela, the feminine of Michael, and Mackayla, treated as a Mc- surname. The spelling declares which reading is intended, and this one leans toward the first. The peak is 1999.
How the name formed
- Mikael
- Michaela
- Mykayla
Related forms: Mikayla · Makayla · Michaela
Pronouncing Mykayla
mih-KAY-luh
Three syllables, stress on the second. All the spellings are homophones; the differences are entirely visual.
Nicknames for Mykayla
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
- 1989
- Most girls named
- 1999192 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1054reached in 1999
- Change vs 2024
- −10.0%9 in 2025, from 10
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.
Mykayla in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Mikayla in English — spelling variant
- Makayla in English — spelling variant
- Michaela in Czech — same name
Mykaylas among us
people named Mykayla are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 178,585 born in 2025 was named Mykayla
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Mykayla
- #10107
- Mykayla on the 2025 chart
- #590
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Mykayla went to 9 girls in 2025, but Mikayla, Mickayla and Mikaylah and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 6 spellings went to 400, which makes it the 590th most-given girls’ name of the year — 9,517 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 4,018 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 178,585 for Mykayla 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 Kenyetta test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Mykayla's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Kenyetta climbed just as high around 1974, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Kenyetta's path sketches the road Mykayla is walking now.
Mykayla 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
Mykayla beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Mykayla in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Kayla works as a short form and is a leading name of its own.
- Three syllables with a strong central stress.
- The Hebrew name behind one reading is documented and ancient.
- At least eight spellings compete for this sound.
- It will be spelled out every time it is given.
- The 1999 peak dates this form.
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Mykayla
Feminine · #10107 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Mykaylas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,700 people named Mykayla are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Mykayla?
- Mykayla is one of 6 recorded spellings. Mikayla is the more common one — 364 births in 2025 against 9 for Mykayla.
- How popular is the name Mykayla in 2025?
- Mykayla ranks #10107 among US girl names in 2025, with 9 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Mykayla?
- About 1 in every 178,585 US girls born in 2025 was named Mykayla — 9 in all.
- Will my child share the name Mykayla with classmates?
- Mykayla will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Mykayla
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Berta#10107 · Jettie#10107 · Maye#10107 · Osa#10107 · Fidelia#10107 · Alysa#10107 · Su#10107 · Willie#10107
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Mykayla? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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