Kila
Kila was given to 5 girls in 2025, #16,175 among girls’ names; 936 Americans have been recorded with it since 1957 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kila by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Kila mean?
Wiktionary, Hawaiian section
Kila is “a male or (sometimes) female given name from Hawaiian” Its etymology gives the sense “high, strong” (kila).
kila (“high, strong”). Also the spoken form of biblical Sila (“Silas”).
/ˈki.la/
Meaning: Wiktionary, Hawaiian section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Kila?
#16,175 among girls’ names, 2025
Kila rose from #17,882 in 2015 to #16,175 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 2.8 to 3.1 per million.
60 babies in 1972, the peak
Kila peaked in 1972, when 60 babies were given it (55 girls, #1,643 among girls’ names). The 5 births of 2025 are 8% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 5 | #16,175 | 3.1 |
| 2024 | 7 | #12,819 | 4.3 |
| 2023 | 6 | #14,338 | 3.7 |
| 2022 | 8 | #11,742 | 4.9 |
| 2021 | 11 | #9,261 | 6.7 |
| 2020 | 6 | #14,325 | 3.7 |
| 2019 | 10 | #10,135 | 6.0 |
| 2017 | 5 | #17,232 | 2.9 |
| 2016 | 6 | #15,335 | 3.4 |
| 2015 | 5 | #17,882 | 2.8 |
Every recorded year (64)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 12 | #9,270 | 6.7 |
| 2013 | 13 | #8,817 | 7.4 |
| 2012 | 11 | #10,085 | 6.2 |
| 2011 | 18 | #6,987 | 10.2 |
| 2010 | 11 | #10,145 | 6.2 |
| 2009 | 15 | #8,252 | 8.2 |
| 2008 | 16 | #7,934 | 8.5 |
| 2007 | 27 | #5,311 | 14.0 |
| 2006 | 23 | #5,826 | 12.1 |
| 2005 | 35 | #4,068 | 18.9 |
| 2004 | 21 | #5,856 | 11.4 |
| 2003 | 29 | #4,470 | 15.9 |
| 2002 | 32 | #4,032 | 17.8 |
| 2001 | 19 | #5,948 | 10.6 |
| 2000 | 25 | #4,719 | 13.8 |
| 1999 | 22 | #4,943 | 12.4 |
| 1998 | 22 | #4,866 | 12.5 |
| 1997 | 24 | #4,447 | 13.8 |
| 1996 | 17 | #5,656 | 9.7 |
| 1995 | 18 | #5,320 | 10.2 |
| 1994 | 15 | #6,162 | 8.4 |
| 1993 | 15 | #6,104 | 8.3 |
| 1992 | 14 | #6,476 | 7.6 |
| 1991 | 13 | #6,792 | 6.9 |
| 1990 | 14 | #6,283 | 7.4 |
| 1989 | 17 | #5,157 | 9.2 |
| 1988 | 15 | #5,455 | 8.4 |
| 1987 | 16 | #4,957 | 9.2 |
| 1986 | 17 | #4,628 | 9.9 |
| 1985 | 8 | #7,927 | 4.6 |
| 1984 | 16 | #4,603 | 9.5 |
| 1983 | 13 | #5,291 | 7.8 |
| 1982 | 23 | #3,587 | 13.6 |
| 1981 | 6 | #9,694 | 3.6 |
| 1980 | 12 | #5,705 | 7.2 |
| 1979 | 15 | #4,731 | 9.3 |
| 1978 | 13 | #5,054 | 8.5 |
| 1977 | 15 | #4,526 | 9.8 |
| 1976 | 15 | #4,237 | 10.2 |
| 1975 | 22 | #3,211 | 15.1 |
| 1974 | 15 | #4,124 | 10.2 |
| 1973 | 19 | #3,404 | 13.0 |
| 1972 | 55 | #1,643 | 36.2 |
| 1971 | 7 | #6,940 | 4.2 |
| 1970 | 7 | #6,662 | 4.0 |
| 1969 | 5 | #8,016 | 3.0 |
| 1967 | 6 | #6,385 | 3.6 |
| 1966 | 8 | #5,057 | 4.7 |
| 1965 | 5 | #6,994 | 2.8 |
| 1963 | 7 | #5,592 | 3.6 |
| 1961 | 6 | #6,200 | 3.0 |
| 1960 | 5 | #6,824 | 2.5 |
| 1958 | 6 | #5,754 | 3.0 |
| 1957 | 7 | #5,135 | 3.4 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Kila a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Kila has been given almost only to girls: 5 boys in 64 years of records.
Girls and boys named Kila: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kila, and how old are they?
An estimated 905 Americans named Kila and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 30 years old and half are between 21 and 46. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 897 people named Kila (854 women and girls, 43 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 872 born in the U.S. The Census count is 3% above that prediction.
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).
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 77,833 babies since 1880, Kila is the eighth most given (1.2% of them). In 2025 it was given to 5 of their 728 babies (<1%), the seventh 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 Kila
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 Kila and names like it
- Compare Kila and KylaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1970sKila peaked in 1972.
- Illinois’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kila since 1910.
- Hawaiian namesWiktionary’s origin for Kila: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1972The year the most babies were named Kila.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Kila alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with KMost given first.