Nikayla
Nikayla was given to 5 girls in 2025, #16,592 among girls’ names; 1,218 Americans have been recorded with it since 1988 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,200 Americans named Nikayla and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 23 years old and half are between 17 and 28.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Nikayla by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Nikayla?
#16,592 among girls’ names, 2025
Nikayla fell from #5,615 in 2015 to #16,592 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 13.4 to 3.1 per million.
67 babies in 1999, the peak
Nikayla peaked in 1999, when 67 girls were given it, #2,244 among girls’ names. The 5 births of 2025 are 7% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 5 | #16,592 | 3.1 |
| 2024 | 8 | #11,861 | 4.9 |
| 2023 | 5 | #16,932 | 3.1 |
| 2022 | 5 | #17,066 | 3.0 |
| 2021 | 9 | #10,890 | 5.5 |
| 2020 | 5 | #16,845 | 3.1 |
| 2019 | 14 | #8,030 | 8.3 |
| 2018 | 16 | #7,323 | 9.4 |
| 2017 | 13 | #8,652 | 7.5 |
| 2016 | 15 | #7,883 | 8.5 |
Every recorded year (38)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 24 | #5,615 | 13.4 |
| 2014 | 22 | #5,936 | 12.3 |
| 2013 | 28 | #4,986 | 16.0 |
| 2012 | 28 | #5,073 | 15.9 |
| 2011 | 36 | #4,133 | 20.5 |
| 2010 | 45 | #3,557 | 25.3 |
| 2009 | 43 | #3,720 | 23.4 |
| 2008 | 55 | #3,110 | 29.1 |
| 2007 | 38 | #4,110 | 19.8 |
| 2006 | 59 | #2,932 | 31.0 |
| 2005 | 65 | #2,618 | 35.2 |
| 2004 | 61 | #2,699 | 33.2 |
| 2003 | 63 | #2,567 | 34.5 |
| 2002 | 54 | #2,807 | 30.1 |
| 2001 | 60 | #2,557 | 33.3 |
| 2000 | 64 | #2,415 | 35.2 |
| 1999 | 67 | #2,244 | 37.8 |
| 1998 | 64 | #2,232 | 36.2 |
| 1997 | 51 | #2,542 | 29.3 |
| 1996 | 38 | #3,123 | 21.7 |
| 1995 | 40 | #2,957 | 22.7 |
| 1994 | 30 | #3,671 | 16.8 |
| 1993 | 20 | #4,936 | 11.1 |
| 1992 | 15 | #6,209 | 8.1 |
| 1991 | 19 | #5,119 | 10.1 |
| 1990 | 17 | #5,463 | 9.0 |
| 1989 | 7 | #10,505 | 3.8 |
| 1988 | 10 | #7,505 | 5.6 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Nikayla a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Nikayla has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 38 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Nikayla: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Nikayla, and how old are they?
1,200 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 1,218 Americans ever recorded as Nikayla. The median Nikayla alive today is 23 years old; half are between 17 and 28.
The 2020 Census counted 976 people named Nikayla (970 women and girls, 6 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,171 born in the U.S. The Census count is 17% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 192 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 843 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 168 |
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).
Names spelled alike
Of these 7 names spelled alike, given to 1,899 babies since 1880, Nikayla is the most given (64% of them).
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 Nikayla
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 Nikayla and names like it
- Compare Nikayla and NickaylaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sNikayla peaked in 1999.
- Florida’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Nikayla since 1910.
- The top names of 1999The year the most babies were named Nikayla.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Nikayla alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with NMost given first.