Miles
A masculine name of Germanic origin meaning "soldier" or "merciful".
Roughly 107,235 people in the United States go by the first name Miles, which ranks #37 nationally when sorted by estimated living bearers. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Miles today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Miles births was 2024 (6,632 babies). In terms of living bearers, it sits close to Alison (106,682).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Miles. 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 Miles with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Miles is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 344 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
107K
~ 1 in 3,196 Americans
Peak year
2024
6,632 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2024 SSA rank
#37
Tracked since 1880
Census
Miles in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 77,428 people with the first name Miles, which placed it at #681 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
#681
National first-name rank
People counted
77K
77,428 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
25.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
68.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Miles
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Miles is White at 68.8%. The next largest groups are Black (10.7%) and Two or More Races (9.1%). 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 Miles 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 Miles at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White68.8% · 53,245
- Black or African American10.7% · 8,280
- Two or more races9.1% · 7,044
- Hispanic or Latino7.9% · 6,142
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.8% · 2,193
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 524
Gender
Gender distribution for Miles
Out of the 117,096 babies given the name Miles since 1880, 99.7% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Miles as a male name
- Ranked #37 in 2024
- 6,611 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (6,611 births)
Miles as a female name
- Ranked #5,889 in 2024
- 21 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2023 (23 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Miles appears almost entirely male. Of the 77,427 people counted with this name, 99.5% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Miles: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Miles from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 36,731 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Miles 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 Miles during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Miles' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Miles, while Wyoming, Vermont, Delaware recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 2,169 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Miles
The name Miles has its origins in the Latin language and dates back to ancient Roman times. It is derived from the Latin word "miles" which means "soldier" or "warrior". This name was likely given to baby boys in Roman families with military connections or traditions.
In medieval times, the name Miles was relatively common among the English nobility and upper classes. It was sometimes spelled Myles or Myles in old records from this period. The name gained popularity after the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, as Norman-French names became fashionable among the ruling classes.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Miles is from the 12th century. Miles of Gloucester was a renowned English soldier and landowner who lived from around 1115 to 1143. He fought in the civil war between King Stephen and the Empress Matilda.
Another significant figure was Miles Coverdale, an English Bible translator who lived from 1488 to 1569. He was the first to publish a complete printed translation of the Bible into English in 1535.
In the 16th century, Sir Miles Hobart was an English politician and member of parliament. He lived from around 1538 to 1598 and served under Queen Elizabeth I.
During the 17th century, Miles Syndercombe was an English theologian and academic who lived from 1584 to 1628. He served as a fellow and lecturer at Queen's College, Oxford.
A more recent notable bearer of the name was Miles Davis, the legendary American jazz trumpeter and bandleader. He was born in 1926 and passed away in 1991, leaving an indelible mark on the world of modern jazz music.
People
Miles + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Miles 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
Miles: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Miles?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 107,235 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Miles 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 3,196 US residents.
Is Miles a common name?
We classify Miles 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, 117,096 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Miles most popular?
The single biggest year for Miles was 2024, when 6,632 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Miles is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Miles in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 77,428 people with the name Miles, or 25.64 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #681 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 Miles 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 Miles?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Miles appears almost entirely male. Of the 77,427 people counted with this name, 99.5% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Miles?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Miles is White at 68.8%. The next largest groups are Black (10.7%) and Two or More Races (9.1%). 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 Miles most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Miles in the 2020 Census, accounting for 68.8% (53,245 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 Miles in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Miles a male name?
Yes, 99.7% of people registered as Miles in the SSA data are male. 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 Miles still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Miles 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 Miles 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 Miles?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.