Miles

77,427 people in America carry this name — ranked #681 of 923.

Most Americans carrying it were born this century.

Say it MYLZ

1 syllable · the capitals are the stressed part

Phonetic transcription

M AY1 L Z — ARPAbet, as published in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. The digit on a vowel marks its stress.

  • People counted 77,427 2020 Census
  • Per 100,000 25.6 about 1 in 4,281 people

What Miles means and where it comes from

Greek in origin, reading literally as “crusher”.

Origins are a matter of scholarly argument rather than record, and a name can be traced more than one way. We state one reading and say where it came from.

Miles name popularity by year

92,421 babies were given this name since 1880. The busiest year was 2020, with 5,257 of them.

80 90 00 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 00 10s 20

Most people carrying it were born in the 2010s. It has been given more often of late.

Counted from Social Security card applications, so it covers births registered in the United States and leaves out names given to fewer than five babies in a year.

Middle names that fit Miles

One syllable, so a longer middle name gives the whole a rhythm.

Better avoided

  • Miles Michael — same opening
  • Miles Matthew — same opening
  • Miles Steven — runs together

Chosen by sound from the pronouncing dictionary, then ordered by how often the name is given. None of it is a rule — the ear decides.

A name and a surname

Miles is carried in front of the comma and behind it — thousands of Americans have it as a surname too.

Is Miles used for boys or for girls?

99.5% men
387 women

As recorded on census returns, not as anyone thinks the name ought to be used.

Where the name Miles is most common in the US

In Utah the name is given 2.3 times as often as it is across the country.

  • Utah ×2.3
  • Oregon ×1.8
  • Colorado ×1.7
  • Washington ×1.7
  • Idaho ×1.6

Measured against the state's own share of births since 1960, so a small state can lead a big one. Counted from Social Security card applications.

How to spell Miles

Miles is how 53% of them spell it — 146,290 people answer to the sound.

Each spelling is its own census entry — the counts never overlap, so the shares are of the group, not of the country.

Names about as common

The nearest entries above and below by number of people.

Same syllables and stress as Miles

Ends on the same sound

Same rhythm — 1 syllables, stress on the first

Matched on phonemes, not spelling, so the lists follow the ear rather than the page.

The likeliest full names

The census counts first names and surnames separately and never together, so these are estimates: how often the two halves would meet if they paired at random. They do not — names cluster by community — so read them as an order of magnitude, not a headcount.

Try it Birth Plan Worksheet

Tick what matters, print it, hand it over. Nothing is stored anywhere.

Open Birth Plan Worksheet on its own page

Where this page gets its numbers

  • Counts, ranks and shares: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 Census tabulations of first and last names occurring 100 or more times. Percentages, bands and groupings are our own arithmetic — the conclusions are ours, not the Bureau’s.
  • Pronunciation, syllables and rhyme groups: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, Carnegie Mellon University. The plain-English respelling is ours.
  • Origins and the forms a name takes in other languages: Charlotte Yonge, History of Christian Names, 1884 — a public-domain work. Scholarship has moved on since, so read it as one reading of a name, not the last word.

Below a hundred people we publish no figure at all — the same threshold the Census Bureau applies to us. What each source covers
Other names of Greek origin