Myla
Feminine · “Most often read as "dear”
Myla is a small name with a big rhyme family behind it — the same two-syllable shape that carries Layla, Kayla and Mila, but opening on a long English "my". It showed up quietly in American records long before its current wave, sat unnoticed for decades, and has been climbing steadily in recent years. It charts on both sides of the Atlantic now, appearing in the Scottish and the English and Welsh rankings as well as the American ones.
How old is the name Myla?
Myla first appears in US birth records in 1913 — 112 years ago. The typical Myla is a kid of about 7 — this name's wave is very recent. About 21,500 people named Myla are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Myla most popular?
Myla peaked in 2023, reaching #181 nationally. Today it ranks #210, 29 places below that high. See the whole 2023 chart.
Where it comes from
From Mila to Myla
The story of Myla
The spelling Myla belongs to English, where y has long been swapped in for i to give a familiar name a different face — the same move that turned Lily into Lyly and Aisha into Ayisha. Behind it stands Mila, a short form used across the Slavic languages from names built on mil-, "dear," and carried west by twentieth-century emigration. But Myla also sits inside an English sound family of its own, next to Layla, Kayla and Mila, and some of its rise clearly comes from that company rather than from any single ancestor. Its wave is genuinely recent and genuinely transatlantic: it is climbing in American records and appearing in the British ones at the same time.
Meaningscholars disagree
Most often read as "dear, gracious" through the Slavic name Mila
Two serious readings compete. Read as an English respelling of Mila, it goes back to the Slavic root mil-, "dear, gracious" — the element behind Milena and Miloslava. Read as a feminine form of Myles or Miles, its meaning is itself unsettled, argued between Latin miles, "soldier," and older Germanic material. A third possibility is simpler: that the spelling was formed in English on the pattern of Layla and Kayla, in which case it carries no inherited meaning at all.
How the name formed
- Mila
- Myla
Related forms: Mila · Mylah · Milla · Milena
Pronouncing Myla
MY-luh
Two syllables, stress on the first, with the long i of "my". The main confusion is with Mila, which most American speakers say MEE-lah — close on paper, different in the mouth.
Nicknames for Myla
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
- 1913
- Most girls named
- 20231,646 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #181reached in 2023
- Change vs 2023
- −12.8%1,436 in 2025, from 1,646
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.
Myla in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Mila in Slavic languages — related form
- Mylah in English — spelling variant
- Milla in Finnish, Swedish — related form
- Milena in Czech, Serbian, Bulgarian — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida. International figures from National Records of Scotland, Office for National Statistics. Sources
Mylas among us
people named Myla are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 1,119 born in 2025 was named Myla
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Myla
- #210
- Myla on the 2025 chart
- #22
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Myla went to 1,436 girls in 2025, but Mila, 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 — 188 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 1,119 for Myla 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 Bonita test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Myla's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Bonita climbed just as high around 1950, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Bonita's path sketches the road Myla is walking now.
Myla is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Myla is headed
Myla looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 16% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
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.
Myla beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Myla in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Two syllables, four letters, and no silent parts — easy for a small child to say and to write early.
- Charts in Scotland and in England and Wales as well as the US, so it reads as a name rather than a puzzle across the English-speaking world.
- Sits in a sound family already familiar to most ears — Layla, Kayla, Mila — which makes it recognizable without being everywhere.
- Short enough that it needs no nickname, with My and Mylie available if one is wanted.
- Myla and Mila will be mixed up for life, in spelling and in speech. Expect to spell it out often and to correct MEE-lah to MY-luh. The variant Mylah adds a third spelling to the pile.
- This is a name on a fast rise. A child named Myla may well be the only one in her class now and share it with two others by high school — worth knowing if rarity is part of the appeal.
- The wave is very new, so nearly everyone carrying this name is a child. There is no long line of adult Mylas yet to show what it sounds like on a grown woman — that record is being written now.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Myla
Feminine · #210 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Mylas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 21,500 people named Myla are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Myla?
- Myla is one of 5 recorded spellings. Mila is the more common one — 4,796 births in 2025 against 1,436 for Myla.
- How popular is the name Myla in 2025?
- Myla ranks #210 among US girl names in 2025, with 1,436 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Myla?
- About 1 in every 1,119 US girls born in 2025 was named Myla — 1,436 in all.
- Will my child share the name Myla with classmates?
- Myla will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Myla
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Aitana#211 · Zara#212 · Adaline#208 · Bailey#208 · Arabella#213 · Celine#207 · Jasmine#206 · Lennon#214
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Myla? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Myla 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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