Skyler
Feminine · Dutch roots · “From a Dutch surname”
Skyler is given to both — 27,698 girls and 41,841 boys since 1880. See Skyler as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Skyler is the plainly-spelled cousin of Schuyler, a Dutch surname that came to New Netherland in the seventeenth century and later moved to the front of children's names in the American fashion. Respelled with a k and a y, it puts the word sky right in front of the eye, which is why almost everyone says it right the first time.
How old is the name Skyler?
Skyler first appears in US birth records in 1975 — 50 years ago. The typical Skyler alive today was born around 2007, making them about 18 years old. About 27,500 people named Skyler are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Skyler most popular?
Skyler peaked in 2000, reaching #250 nationally. Today it ranks #670, 420 places below that high. See the whole 2000 chart.
Skyler appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From Schuyler (Dutch surname) to Skyler
The story of Skyler
The name begins as a Dutch family name, and the Schuylers were among the well-documented Dutch families of colonial New York, which kept the surname in circulation long after Dutch rule ended. Americans have a long habit of turning respectable surnames into first names, and Schuyler made that move for boys in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The phonetic respelling Skyler arrived much later, and it did something the older spelling could not: it looked like the word sky. From there it spread quickly to girls as well as boys, and today it is given to both, with the balance tipping toward girls without ever settling there.
Meaningscholars disagree
From a Dutch surname, read either as "scholar" or as "one who shelters"
The surname Schuyler is most often glossed as "scholar," and also traced to the Dutch verb schuilen, "to take shelter, to hide." Neither reading has won outright. Worth knowing too: the modern spelling makes English readers see "sky," which has nothing to do with the Dutch root but is now part of how the name is heard.
How the name formed
- SchuylerDutch surname
- Schuyler
- Skyler
- Skylar
Related forms: Schuyler · Schuyler · Skylar · Skyla
Pronouncing Skyler
SKY-ler
Two syllables, stress on the first, rhyming with "tiler." The older Schuyler spelling is pronounced exactly the same way, which surprises people who meet it in print first.
Nicknames for Skyler
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
- 1975
- Most girls named
- 20001,284 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #250reached in 2000
- Change vs 2024
- −5.2%422 in 2025, from 445
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.
Skyler in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Schuyler in Dutch — related form
- Schuyler in English — spelling variant
- Skylar in English — spelling variant
- Skyla in English — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Skylers among us
people named Skyler are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 3,809 born in 2025 was named Skyler
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 Cathleen test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Skyler's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Cathleen climbed just as high around 1956, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Cathleen's path sketches the road Skyler is walking now.
Skyler 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 Skyler is headed
Skyler is easing off slowly — about 17% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
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.
Skyler beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Skyler in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Reads correctly on sight for English speakers — the sky at the front does the work, so it rarely needs to be sounded out.
- Has one obvious short form, Sky, which is itself an established given name and can carry a whole life if wanted.
- Sits on a documented surname line reaching back to Dutch colonial New York, so it has history behind the modern spelling.
- Works for a boy or a girl without adjustment, and is already in use both ways.
- Familiar to nearly everyone without being a name a child is likely to share in their classroom.
- The -er and -ar spellings compete directly, and Schuyler is still out there too. Expect "is that with an E or an A?" for life. Choosing the spelling and saying it confidently is most of the fix.
- It leans toward girls in American records but is genuinely given to both, so a boy named Skyler may meet forms and teachers that assume otherwise — usually a one-sentence correction, repeated now and then.
- Skyler White in Breaking Bad is the best-known bearer of this exact spelling, and the character drew strong opinions from viewers. That association fades with each year, but adults may still mention it.
- The name is easing back from its high point rather than rising, which means a child will likely be the only Skyler around — good if you want that, worth knowing if you pictured a name on the way up.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Skyler
Feminine · Dutch roots · #670 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Skylers are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 27,500 people named Skyler are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Skyler in 2025?
- Skyler ranks #670 among US girl names in 2025, with 422 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Skyler?
- About 1 in every 3,809 US girls born in 2025 was named Skyler — 422 in all.
- Will my child share the name Skyler with classmates?
- Skyler will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Skyler
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Yaretzi#670 · Birdie#670 · Lakelyn#673 · Laney#673 · Jolene#666 · Oakleigh#666 · Paislee#666 · Marisol#666
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Skyler? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Skyler and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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