girl's name
Mikayla
mi-KAY-luh
- Origin American
- Gender Girl
- Letters 7
- Popularity Top 1000 (US)
- Births on record 64,154
the United States
#746
2025 births
Mikayla respells Michaela, and the Hebrew behind both is a question — who is like God — whose expected answer is nobody. The respelling peaked one year after the original and fell faster. Both spellings are large enough to hold their own page here.
- Mikayla is a name of American origin.
- Peaked in 1998, when 3,858 babies were given the name.
- It has been falling over the past decade.
- Today about 1 in 9,108 babies in the United States is given this name.
- First appears in US birth records in 1970.
Mikayla over time
Births per decade in the United States, 1970s to 2020s. The striped bar is the 2020s, still in progress — it covers 2020 to 2025, not a full ten years.
Show the numbers
| Decade | Births |
|---|---|
| 1970s | 52 |
| 1980s | 736 |
| 1990s | 18,746 |
| 2000s | 23,743 |
| 2010s | 10,758 |
| 2020s (to 2025) | 2,689 |
What Mikayla means
Mikayla means who is like God, carried from Michaela. The Hebrew phrasing is interrogative, so the name denies any equal rather than drawing a comparison.
Where Mikayla comes from
Mikayla is an American respelling of Michaela, the feminine of Michael, from the Hebrew Mikha'el — mi, who, kha, like, El, God. The k-and-y spelling belongs to a late twentieth-century American pattern that also produced Makayla, Mikaela and Micaela, and which generally splits a name's births across half a dozen forms. Our records begin in 1970, so unlike Michaela this spelling has no history before the modern period.
Mikayla in use
Mikayla peaked in the United States in 1998, when 3,858 babies were registered — one year after Michaela's own peak and slightly above it — and is falling in our data. It now ranks 746th in the United States on 364 births, 814th in Scotland on 3, 973rd in England and Wales on 36 and 5644th in France on 5, across 64,154 lifetime births in five of the seven markets we track.
How popular is Mikayla?
In 2025, Mikayla was given to 364 babies in the United States, ranking #746 that year. It is a well-established, commonly used name.
Where Mikayla is used
US figures omit any name given to fewer than five babies in a year, so the rarest names are absent from the source rather than absent from use. Data & sources.
Names that peaked alongside Mikayla
These names rose and fell in the same era, which is why they tend to sound like they belong together.
Parents who like Mikayla also like
Names whose popularity has risen and fallen in step with Mikayla over the last century — the same taste, a different name.
Mikayla in other languages
The same name as it is spelled elsewhere — not shortenings, and not different names that merely sound alike. Each one has its own record here.
Sibling names for Mikayla
Names from the same era that won't rhyme or share an initial with Mikayla — the two things that make a sibling set grate.
Common questions about Mikayla
What does the name Mikayla mean?
Who is like God — a question, carried from Michaela and the Hebrew Mikha'el.
Is Mikayla or Michaela the original?
Michaela. Mikayla is a late twentieth-century American respelling.
Why are there so many spellings?
The pattern split the name's births across Makayla, Mikaela, Micaela and more.
How popular is Mikayla?
746th in the United States, down from a 1998 peak of 3,858 births.
Is Mikayla a girl's or a boy's name?
Mikayla is given almost entirely to girls in birth records.
Is Mikayla a good name?
That is not something records can settle, but they can tell you what you would be choosing. Mikayla currently ranks #307 in the United States. It has been falling over the past decade. Everything else — how it sounds with your surname, who it reminds you of — is yours.