Kayla
Kayla was given to 838 girls in 2025, #364 among girls’ names; 347,144 Americans have been recorded with it since 1933 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 341,000 Americans named Kayla and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 30 years old and half are between 23 and 35.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kayla by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Kayla mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Kayla is “a female given name of modern usage.”
A modern invention possibly based on Kay or Michaela; possibly formed on the pattern of Layla.
/ˈkeɪ.lə/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Kayla?
#364 among girls’ names, 2025
Kayla fell from #116 in 2015 to #364 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 1.5 to 0.52 per 1,000.
18,580 babies in 1991, the peak
Kayla peaked in 1991, when 18,580 babies were given it (18,545 girls, #12 among girls’ names). The 838 births of 2025 are 5% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 838 | #364 | 0.52 |
| 2024 | 935 | #336 | 0.58 |
| 2023 | 952 | #324 | 0.59 |
| 2022 | 1,133 | #280 | 0.69 |
| 2021 | 1,217 | #254 | 0.74 |
| 2020 | 1,340 | #216 | 0.83 |
| 2019 | 1,613 | #182 | 1.0 |
| 2018 | 1,892 | #149 | 1.1 |
| 2017 | 2,128 | #138 | 1.2 |
| 2016 | 2,471 | #129 | 1.4 |
Every recorded year (91)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 2,740 | #116 | 1.5 |
| 2014 | 3,012 | #101 | 1.7 |
| 2013 | 3,261 | #96 | 1.9 |
| 2012 | 3,776 | #69 | 2.1 |
| 2011 | 4,336 | #59 | 2.5 |
| 2010 | 5,060 | #49 | 2.8 |
| 2009 | 5,847 | #35 | 3.2 |
| 2008 | 6,835 | #28 | 3.6 |
| 2007 | 7,583 | #26 | 3.9 |
| 2006 | 8,226 | #26 | 4.3 |
| 2005 | 8,620 | #25 | 4.7 |
| 2004 | 9,773 | #18 | 5.3 |
| 2003 | 10,957 | #16 | 6.0 |
| 2002 | 11,310 | #19 | 6.3 |
| 2001 | 11,892 | #17 | 6.6 |
| 2000 | 13,313 | #13 | 7.3 |
| 1999 | 13,292 | #13 | 7.5 |
| 1998 | 13,422 | #12 | 7.6 |
| 1997 | 13,885 | #12 | 8.0 |
| 1996 | 15,269 | #11 | 8.7 |
| 1995 | 16,087 | #11 | 9.1 |
| 1994 | 15,885 | #12 | 8.9 |
| 1993 | 15,453 | #16 | 8.5 |
| 1992 | 16,517 | #13 | 9.0 |
| 1991 | 18,545 | #12 | 9.9 |
| 1990 | 17,538 | #14 | 9.2 |
| 1989 | 14,903 | #20 | 8.1 |
| 1988 | 13,433 | #20 | 7.5 |
| 1987 | 10,576 | #27 | 6.1 |
| 1986 | 4,657 | #64 | 2.7 |
| 1985 | 2,608 | #109 | 1.5 |
| 1984 | 2,681 | #100 | 1.6 |
| 1983 | 3,527 | #81 | 2.1 |
| 1982 | 2,275 | #133 | 1.3 |
| 1981 | 317 | #583 | 0.19 |
| 1980 | 314 | #590 | 0.19 |
| 1979 | 256 | #673 | 0.16 |
| 1978 | 237 | #672 | 0.15 |
| 1977 | 226 | #693 | 0.15 |
| 1976 | 202 | #726 | 0.14 |
| 1975 | 185 | #766 | 0.13 |
| 1974 | 180 | #771 | 0.12 |
| 1973 | 149 | #866 | 0.10 |
| 1972 | 182 | #764 | 0.12 |
| 1971 | 167 | #830 | 0.10 |
| 1970 | 158 | #854 | 0.09 |
| 1969 | 192 | #730 | 0.11 |
| 1968 | 139 | #871 | 0.08 |
| 1967 | 135 | #878 | 0.08 |
| 1966 | 144 | #832 | 0.09 |
| 1965 | 147 | #820 | 0.08 |
| 1964 | 163 | #822 | 0.09 |
| 1963 | 156 | #837 | 0.08 |
| 1962 | 166 | #813 | 0.08 |
| 1961 | 116 | #1,007 | 0.06 |
| 1960 | 130 | #935 | 0.06 |
| 1959 | 116 | #984 | 0.06 |
| 1958 | 103 | #1,030 | 0.05 |
| 1957 | 101 | #1,042 | 0.05 |
| 1956 | 69 | #1,254 | 0.03 |
| 1955 | 67 | #1,234 | 0.03 |
| 1954 | 60 | #1,280 | 0.03 |
| 1953 | 49 | #1,399 | 0.03 |
| 1952 | 47 | #1,424 | 0.03 |
| 1951 | 51 | #1,307 | 0.03 |
| 1950 | 37 | #1,535 | 0.02 |
| 1949 | 24 | #1,984 | 0.01 |
| 1948 | 30 | #1,722 | 0.02 |
| 1947 | 16 | #2,580 | 0.01 |
| 1946 | 23 | #1,946 | 0.01 |
| 1945 | 11 | #2,833 | 0.01 |
| 1944 | 15 | #2,342 | 0.01 |
| 1943 | 12 | #2,776 | 0.01 |
| 1942 | 13 | #2,599 | 0.01 |
| 1941 | 11 | #2,754 | 0.01 |
| 1940 | 6 | #4,100 | 0.01 |
| 1939 | 9 | #3,025 | 0.01 |
| 1938 | 9 | #3,050 | 0.01 |
| 1937 | 6 | #4,038 | 0.01 |
| 1935 | 5 | #4,553 | under 0.01 |
| 1933 | 6 | #3,978 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Kayla a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Kayla has been given almost only to girls: 574 boys in 91 years of records.
Girls and boys named Kayla: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kayla, and how old are they?
341,000 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 347,144 Americans ever recorded as Kayla. The median Kayla alive today is 30 years old; half are between 23 and 35.
The 2020 Census counted 303,207 people named Kayla (302,687 women and girls, 520 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 336,209 born in the U.S. The Census count is 10% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 45 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 1,250 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 2,810 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 167,000 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 147,000 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 23,400 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Kayla born?
The states with the most babies named Kayla are California, Texas and New York, with 37% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 124 | #266 | 0.7× |
| Texas | 84 | #399 | 0.8× |
| New York | 82 | #209 | 0.9× |
| Florida | 67 | #282 | 1.1× |
| New Jersey | 65 | #117 | 0.9× |
| Ohio | 32 | #352 | 1.0× |
| Pennsylvania | 29 | #376 | 1.1× |
| Maryland | 29 | #178 | 1.1× |
| Illinois | 26 | #413 | 0.8× |
| Massachusetts | 26 | #219 | 0.9× |
Where Kayla is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Kayla is most over-represented in West Virginia: since 1933 it was given 1.3 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Kayla with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 585,051 babies since 1880, Kayla is the most given (59% of them). In 2025 it was given to 838 of their 3,336 babies (25%), the third most given that year.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Kayla
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Kayla and names like it
- Compare Kayla and KayleeBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sKayla peaked in 1991.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kayla since 1910.
- The top names of 1991The year the most babies were named Kayla.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Kayla alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with KMost given first.