Makayla
Makayla was given to 530 girls in 2025, #568 among girls’ names; 108,183 Americans have been recorded with it since 1971 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 107,000 Americans named Makayla and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 20 years old and half are between 16 and 25.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Makayla by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Makayla mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Makayla is “a female given name from Hebrew, of modern usage, variant of Michaela.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Makayla?
#568 among girls’ names, 2025
Makayla fell from #143 in 2015 to #568 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 1.3 to 0.33 per 1,000.
5,963 babies in 2008, the peak
Makayla peaked in 2008, when 5,963 babies were given it (5,957 girls, #37 among girls’ names). The 530 births of 2025 are 9% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 530 | #568 | 0.33 |
| 2024 | 562 | #542 | 0.35 |
| 2023 | 683 | #452 | 0.43 |
| 2022 | 797 | #392 | 0.49 |
| 2021 | 880 | #355 | 0.54 |
| 2020 | 954 | #325 | 0.59 |
| 2019 | 1,265 | #261 | 0.75 |
| 2018 | 1,376 | #232 | 0.81 |
| 2017 | 1,506 | #205 | 0.87 |
| 2016 | 1,946 | #165 | 1.1 |
Every recorded year (55)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 2,263 | #143 | 1.3 |
| 2014 | 2,591 | #123 | 1.5 |
| 2013 | 3,297 | #94 | 1.9 |
| 2012 | 3,774 | #70 | 2.1 |
| 2011 | 4,460 | #56 | 2.5 |
| 2010 | 5,397 | #43 | 3.0 |
| 2009 | 5,269 | #44 | 2.9 |
| 2008 | 5,957 | #37 | 3.2 |
| 2007 | 5,428 | #47 | 2.8 |
| 2006 | 5,652 | #45 | 3.0 |
| 2005 | 5,727 | #44 | 3.1 |
| 2004 | 5,666 | #47 | 3.1 |
| 2003 | 5,580 | #51 | 3.1 |
| 2002 | 5,476 | #50 | 3.0 |
| 2001 | 5,318 | #54 | 3.0 |
| 2000 | 4,917 | #67 | 2.7 |
| 1999 | 4,791 | #66 | 2.7 |
| 1998 | 4,365 | #71 | 2.5 |
| 1997 | 3,345 | #102 | 1.9 |
| 1996 | 2,463 | #129 | 1.4 |
| 1995 | 1,911 | #164 | 1.1 |
| 1994 | 1,503 | #199 | 0.84 |
| 1993 | 762 | #340 | 0.42 |
| 1992 | 415 | #564 | 0.23 |
| 1991 | 276 | #751 | 0.15 |
| 1990 | 252 | #796 | 0.13 |
| 1989 | 207 | #887 | 0.11 |
| 1988 | 92 | #1,482 | 0.05 |
| 1987 | 68 | #1,759 | 0.04 |
| 1986 | 47 | #2,216 | 0.03 |
| 1985 | 44 | #2,301 | 0.03 |
| 1984 | 43 | #2,278 | 0.03 |
| 1983 | 31 | #2,827 | 0.02 |
| 1982 | 17 | #4,460 | 0.01 |
| 1981 | 26 | #3,304 | 0.02 |
| 1980 | 18 | #4,237 | 0.01 |
| 1979 | 13 | #5,284 | 0.01 |
| 1978 | 14 | #4,828 | 0.01 |
| 1977 | 11 | #5,724 | 0.01 |
| 1976 | 9 | #6,370 | 0.01 |
| 1975 | 7 | #7,634 | under 0.01 |
| 1974 | 8 | #6,601 | 0.01 |
| 1973 | 6 | #8,009 | under 0.01 |
| 1972 | 7 | #6,969 | under 0.01 |
| 1971 | 8 | #6,360 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Makayla a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Makayla has been given almost only to girls: 153 boys in 55 years of records.
Girls and boys named Makayla: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Makayla, and how old are they?
107,000 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 108,183 Americans ever recorded as Makayla. The median Makayla alive today is 20 years old; half are between 16 and 25.
The 2020 Census counted 87,622 people named Makayla (87,469 women and girls, 153 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 103,110 born in the U.S. The Census count is 15% 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 | 96 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 8,000 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 80,400 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 18,500 |
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 Makayla born?
The states with the most babies named Makayla are California, Texas and Florida, with 33% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 66 | #507 | 0.6× |
| Texas | 62 | #517 | 0.9× |
| Florida | 34 | #538 | 1.0× |
| Georgia | 31 | #359 | 1.4× |
| Pennsylvania | 28 | #396 | 0.9× |
| Ohio | 22 | #498 | 1.1× |
| New York | 21 | #774 | 0.7× |
| New Jersey | 21 | #384 | 0.6× |
| North Carolina | 19 | #572 | 1.4× |
| Illinois | 19 | #536 | 0.8× |
Where Makayla is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Makayla is most over-represented in Mississippi: since 1971 it was given 1.5 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 Makayla 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, Makayla is the most given (77% of them). In 2025 it was given to 530 of their 642 babies (83%), again the most given.
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 Makayla
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 Makayla and names like it
- Compare Makayla and MckaylaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sMakayla peaked in 2008.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Makayla since 1910.
- The top names of 2008The year the most babies were named Makayla.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Makayla alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with MMost given first.