Mayla
Of Middle Eastern origin meaning "queen" or "exceptional one".
Name Census estimates that about 1,563 living Americans carry the first name Mayla. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Mayla today is around 13 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Mayla births was 2024 (114 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Mayla. 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 Mayla with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Mayla is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 13 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
1.6K
~ 1 in 219,293 Americans
Peak year
2024
114 babies that year
Average age
13
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,769
Tracked since 1956
Census
Mayla in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,300 people with the first name Mayla, which placed it at #10,316 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
#10,316
National first-name rank
People counted
1.3K
1,300 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
47.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Mayla
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mayla is White at 47.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (26.8%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (9.3%). 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 Mayla 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 Mayla at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White47.4% · 616
- Hispanic or Latino26.8% · 349
- Asian and Pacific Islander9.3% · 121
- Two or more races7.9% · 103
- Black or African American7.7% · 100
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 11
Popularity
Mayla: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Mayla from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 702 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Mayla remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Mayla 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 Mayla during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Maylas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 15 states and territories. California, Florida, Texas recorded the most babies named Mayla, while New Jersey, Missouri, Illinois recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 30 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Mayla
The name Mayla is believed to have its origins in the ancient Sanskrit language of India, dating back to around the 5th century BCE. It is derived from the Sanskrit word "mala," meaning "garland" or "wreath," often used as a symbol of purity, beauty, and spiritual devotion.
In ancient Indian texts and religious scriptures, such as the Vedas and the Puranas, there are references to celestial beings and deities adorned with garlands of flowers, which may have inspired the name Mayla. The name was particularly popular among the Hindu communities of the Indian subcontinent during the classical period.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Mayla can be found in the ancient Tamil epic "Silappadikaram," written around the 5th century CE. The epic mentions a character named Mayla, a beautiful and virtuous woman who lived in the city of Puhar, an important trading port in the ancient Tamil kingdom.
Throughout history, there have been several notable figures who bore the name Mayla. In the 7th century CE, Mayla Nayaki was a renowned Kannada poet and scholar from the Western Ganga Dynasty of present-day Karnataka, India. Her works, such as "Nalacharita," are considered literary masterpieces in the Kannada language.
During the 14th century, Mayla Devi was a powerful queen consort of the Bahmani Sultanate, a medieval Islamic kingdom in the Deccan region of India. She is credited with influencing the cultural and architectural development of the Bahmani capital, Bidar.
In the 16th century, Mayla Bai was a prominent courtesan and poet in the court of the Mughal Emperor Akbar. Her poetry, which often celebrated love and spirituality, earned her great acclaim during her lifetime.
Another notable figure was Mayla Rachamalla, a 17th-century Telugu poet and composer from the Nayak kingdom of Madurai in present-day Tamil Nadu, India. Her literary works, including the celebrated "Varahanamatya Kavya," have been widely studied and appreciated for their poetic mastery.
While the name Mayla has its roots in ancient India, it has also been adopted and adapted in various cultures around the world, sometimes with slight variations in spelling or pronunciation. The name continues to be popular, particularly in certain regions of South Asia and among diaspora communities, carrying with it a rich cultural heritage and symbolism.
People
Mayla + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Mayla 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
Mayla: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Mayla?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,563 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Mayla 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 219,293 US residents.
Is Mayla a common name?
We classify Mayla as "Rare". It ranks above 92.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,585 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Mayla most popular?
The single biggest year for Mayla was 2024, when 114 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Mayla is about 13 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Mayla in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,300 people with the name Mayla, or 0.43 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #10,316 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 Mayla 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 Mayla?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Mayla appears almost entirely female. Of the 1,294 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 Mayla?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mayla is White at 47.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (26.8%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (9.3%). 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 Mayla most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Mayla in the 2020 Census, accounting for 47.4% (616 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 Mayla in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Mayla a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Mayla 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 Mayla still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Mayla 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 Mayla 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 many people share the name Mayla?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.