Makayla
Of Old English origin, meaning pure or blessed.
Name Census estimates that about 105,945 living Americans carry the first name Makayla. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Makayla today is around 20 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Makayla births was 2008 (5,962 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Makayla. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Makayla with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Makayla is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 153 boys registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
106K
~ 1 in 3,235 Americans
Peak year
2008
5,962 babies that year
Average age
20
years old
2011 SSA rank
#542
Tracked since 1971
Census
Makayla in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 87,615 people with the first name Makayla, which placed it at #606 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#606
National first-name rank
People counted
88K
87,615 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
29.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
53.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Makayla
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Makayla is White at 53.5%. The next largest groups are Black (23.3%) and Hispanic (12.8%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Makayla described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Makayla at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White53.5% · 46,878
- Black or African American23.3% · 20,458
- Hispanic or Latino12.8% · 11,196
- Two or more races8.1% · 7,060
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.4% · 1,238
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 785
Gender
Gender distribution for Makayla
Out of the 107,627 babies given the name Makayla since 1880, 99.9% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Makayla as a male name
- Ranked #9,298 in 2011
- 8 male births in 2011
- Peak: 2004 (28 births)
Makayla as a female name
- Ranked #542 in 2024
- 556 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2008 (5,956 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Makayla appears almost entirely female. Of the 87,622 people counted with this name, 99.8% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Makayla: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Makayla from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 55,095 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Makayla by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Makayla during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Makaylas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. Texas, California, Florida recorded the most babies named Makayla, while Vermont, Wyoming, North Dakota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 2,089 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Makayla
The name Makayla is a modern English feminine name that first became popular in the late 20th century. It is likely a combination of the Hebrew name Michaela, meaning "who is like God", and the Gaelic name Kayla, meaning "keeper of the keys" or "slender and fair".
The name does not have any definitive ancient origins or etymological roots. It seems to have been created in the United States as a variation of the more traditional names Michaela and Kayla. The earliest recorded use of the name Makayla appears to be in the 1980s, though it did not gain widespread popularity until the 1990s.
There are no known historical figures or famous individuals from ancient times who bore the name Makayla. However, as the name has become more common in recent decades, there are now several notable people with this first name.
One of the earliest well-known individuals named Makayla was Makayla Malaka, an American singer and actress born in 1992. She starred in several television shows and films throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Another notable Makayla is Makayla McGill, an American gymnast born in 1996. She competed in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London and won a silver medal as part of the U.S. women's gymnastics team.
In the world of sports, Makayla Epps is an American professional basketball player born in 1994. She played college basketball for the University of Kentucky before being drafted into the WNBA in 2017.
Makayla Ockerman is an American actress born in 2003, known for her roles in various television shows and films, including the 2018 movie "Wildling".
Makayla Dysinger is an American singer and songwriter born in 1995. She gained recognition through her appearances on the reality singing competition shows "The Voice" and "American Idol".
While the name Makayla is relatively new and does not have a long historical lineage, it has become a popular choice for baby names in recent times, particularly in the United States and other English-speaking countries.
People
Makayla + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Makayla as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with M
Other first names starting with M with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Makayla: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Makayla?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 105,945 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Makayla going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 3,235 US residents.
Is Makayla a common name?
We classify Makayla as "Common". It ranks above 99.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 107,627 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Makayla most popular?
The single biggest year for Makayla was 2008, when 5,962 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Makayla is about 20 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Makayla in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 87,615 people with the name Makayla, or 29.01 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #606 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Makayla in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Makayla?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Makayla appears almost entirely female. Of the 87,622 people counted with this name, 99.8% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Makayla?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Makayla is White at 53.5%. The next largest groups are Black (23.3%) and Hispanic (12.8%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Makayla most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Makayla in the 2020 Census, accounting for 53.5% (46,878 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Makayla in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Makayla a female name?
Yes, 99.9% of people registered as Makayla in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Makayla still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Makayla in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Makayla can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How common is the name Makayla?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.