Makaela
Makaela was given to 13 girls in 2025, #8,160 among girls’ names; 2,764 Americans have been recorded with it since 1980 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 2,730 Americans named Makaela and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 22 years old and half are between 16 and 28.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Makaela by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Makaela?
#8,160 among girls’ names, 2025
Makaela fell from #3,163 in 2015 to #8,160 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 29.7 to 8.1 per million.
145 babies in 1998, the peak
Makaela peaked in 1998, when 145 girls were given it, #1,255 among girls’ names. The 13 births of 2025 are 9% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 13 | #8,160 | 8.1 |
| 2024 | 17 | #6,829 | 10.5 |
| 2023 | 16 | #7,126 | 10.0 |
| 2022 | 19 | #6,373 | 11.6 |
| 2021 | 16 | #7,138 | 9.8 |
| 2020 | 22 | #5,589 | 13.6 |
| 2019 | 34 | #4,230 | 20.3 |
| 2018 | 34 | #4,206 | 20.0 |
| 2017 | 30 | #4,651 | 17.4 |
| 2016 | 37 | #4,051 | 20.9 |
Every recorded year (43)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 53 | #3,163 | 29.7 |
| 2014 | 44 | #3,564 | 24.6 |
| 2013 | 71 | #2,523 | 40.5 |
| 2012 | 80 | #2,352 | 45.4 |
| 2011 | 107 | #1,882 | 60.8 |
| 2010 | 130 | #1,644 | 73.1 |
| 2009 | 126 | #1,739 | 68.6 |
| 2008 | 124 | #1,782 | 65.6 |
| 2007 | 118 | #1,812 | 61.4 |
| 2006 | 113 | #1,821 | 59.4 |
| 2005 | 92 | #2,048 | 49.8 |
| 2004 | 115 | #1,696 | 62.6 |
| 2003 | 126 | #1,537 | 69.0 |
| 2002 | 124 | #1,527 | 69.0 |
| 2001 | 140 | #1,364 | 77.8 |
| 2000 | 138 | #1,358 | 76.0 |
| 1999 | 129 | #1,373 | 72.7 |
| 1998 | 145 | #1,255 | 82.1 |
| 1997 | 136 | #1,287 | 78.1 |
| 1996 | 94 | #1,634 | 53.6 |
| 1995 | 109 | #1,469 | 62.0 |
| 1994 | 67 | #2,071 | 37.5 |
| 1993 | 42 | #2,857 | 23.2 |
| 1992 | 16 | #5,893 | 8.7 |
| 1991 | 18 | #5,303 | 9.6 |
| 1990 | 17 | #5,433 | 9.0 |
| 1989 | 13 | #6,380 | 7.1 |
| 1988 | 11 | #6,922 | 6.2 |
| 1987 | 7 | #9,391 | 4.0 |
| 1986 | 5 | #12,026 | 2.9 |
| 1985 | 5 | #11,729 | 2.9 |
| 1983 | 5 | #11,267 | 3.0 |
| 1980 | 6 | #9,811 | 3.6 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Makaela a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Makaela has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 43 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Makaela: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Makaela, and how old are they?
2,730 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 2,764 Americans ever recorded as Makaela. The median Makaela alive today is 22 years old; half are between 16 and 28.
The 2020 Census counted 2,290 people named Makaela (2,290 women and girls, 0 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 2,641 born in the U.S. The Census count is 13% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 6 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 401 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,920 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 403 |
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 Makaela born?
The states with the most babies named Makaela are California, Texas and Florida, with 56% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 337 | not ranked | 0.9× |
| Texas | 212 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Florida | 104 | not ranked | 0.7× |
| Ohio | 76 | not ranked | 0.7× |
| Washington | 50 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Michigan | 44 | not ranked | 0.5× |
| Indiana | 43 | not ranked | 0.7× |
| North Carolina | 40 | not ranked | 0.5× |
| New York | 40 | not ranked | 0.2× |
| Pennsylvania | 36 | not ranked | 0.3× |
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 Makaela 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 140,103 babies since 1880, Makaela is the sixth most given (2.0% of them). In 2025 it was given to 13 of their 642 babies (2.0%), the fifth 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 Makaela
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 Makaela and names like it
- Compare Makaela and MakaylaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sMakaela peaked in 1998.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Makaela since 1910.
- The top names of 1998The year the most babies were named Makaela.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Makaela alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with MMost given first.