Mika
Mika is a Japanese unisex name meaning "beautiful, fragrant".
Name Census estimates that about 7,712 living Americans carry the first name Mika. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 83.3% of registrations being female. The average person named Mika today is around 23 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Mika births was 2015 (244 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Mika. 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 Mika with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
7.7K
~ 1 in 44,444 Americans
Peak year
2015
244 babies that year
Average age
23
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,545
Tracked since 1954
Census
Mika in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 8,412 people with the first name Mika, which placed it at #2,772 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
#2,772
National first-name rank
People counted
8.4K
8,412 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
41.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Mika
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mika is White at 41.4%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (22.9%) and Two or More Races (15.6%). 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 Mika 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 Mika at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White41.4% · 3,486
- Asian and Pacific Islander22.9% · 1,927
- Two or more races15.6% · 1,313
- Black or African American9.8% · 827
- Hispanic or Latino8.8% · 737
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.5% · 122
Gender
Gender distribution for Mika
Mika leans heavily female at 83.3% of total registrations, but 1,327 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Mika as a male name
- Ranked #2,893 in 2024
- 44 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2019 (50 births)
Mika as a female name
- Ranked #1,545 in 2024
- 138 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2017 (203 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Mika leans strongly female. 7,052 people counted with this name were female (83.8%), compared with 1,361 male bearers (16.2%).
Popularity
Mika: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Mika 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 2,207 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Mika remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Mika 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 Mika during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Mikas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 32 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Mika, while Maryland, Kentucky, Alaska recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 115 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Mika
The name Mika has its roots in several different cultures and languages, with a variety of meanings and origins. One of the earliest known sources of the name is from the Hebrew language, where it is a shortened form of the name Michael, meaning "who is like God."
In Japanese culture, the name Mika can be written using different kanji characters, with meanings such as "beautiful fragrance," "tree flower," or "new summer." It has been a popular name for girls in Japan for centuries.
The name Mika is also found in Finnish and Estonian cultures, where it is a diminutive form of the name Mikael or Mikhail, ultimately derived from the Hebrew Michael. In these Nordic languages, Mika can be a name for both boys and girls.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Mika can be found in the Bible's Book of Chronicles, where it is mentioned as the name of a Levite. In ancient Greece, there was a legendary figure named Mika, who was believed to be a priestess of the goddess Artemis.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals named Mika. Mika Waltari (1908-1979) was a Finnish writer and novelist, best known for his historical novel "The Egyptian." Mika Häkkinen (born 1968) is a Finnish former racing driver who won two Formula One World Championships.
In the world of music, Mika is the stage name of the Lebanese-British singer-songwriter Michael Holbrook Penniman Jr. (born 1983), known for hits like "Grace Kelly" and "Relax, Take It Easy." Mika Brzezinski (born 1967) is an American television host and author, co-hosting the MSNBC morning show "Morning Joe."
Another notable figure is Mika Yamamoto (born 1967), a Japanese voice actress and singer who has provided voices for numerous anime and video game characters. Mika Kallio (born 1982) is a Finnish former professional motorcycle racer who competed in MotoGP.
People
Mika + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Mika 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
Mika: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Mika?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 7,712 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Mika 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 44,444 US residents.
Is Mika a common name?
We classify Mika as "Rare". It ranks above 97.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 7,948 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Mika most popular?
The single biggest year for Mika was 2015, when 244 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Mika is about 23 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Mika in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 8,412 people with the name Mika, or 2.79 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,772 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 Mika 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 Mika?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Mika leans strongly female. 7,052 people counted with this name were female (83.8%), compared with 1,361 male bearers (16.2%). 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 Mika?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mika is White at 41.4%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (22.9%) and Two or More Races (15.6%). 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 Mika most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Mika in the 2020 Census, accounting for 41.4% (3,486 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 Mika in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Mika a female name?
Yes, 83.3% of people registered as Mika 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 Mika still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Mika 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 Mika 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 Mika?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.