Kayla

← Back to The Early Middle Ages

Girl · Modern American coinage

Kayla

Say it: KAY-luh

Try it with your surname

Meaning

A modern American name of uncertain origin, probably built on Kay with the ending -la. Claims that it is Hebrew for 'crown' or Gaelic for 'slender' are unsupported.

Uncertainseveral explanations, none settled.

Rare before the 1980s, it rose after a character of that name appeared in the soap opera Days of Our Lives and peaked in the US in the 1990s.

Its wave through time

A fashion of the 1990s

In the United States

051018801900192019401960198020002020Peak 1991per 1,000 babies of that sex
  • 341,982 babies given this name since 1933
  • At its height in 1991, about 1 in 101 girls
  • 1,326 babies in 2020

Through the ages

  1. The Modern Age1880 to today

Used by

American

The family of the name

Other spellings: Kaila, Kaylah

Names worth a look

Where this comes from

  • Modern use, as a recently created name
  • United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
  • United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source

Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.

Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.