Miley
A feminine given name derived from a Middle English surname meaning "one from the mill town or mill residence".
Name Census estimates that about 14,620 living Americans carry the first name Miley. It sits at #387 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It is a predominantly female name (99.5% of registrations). The average person named Miley today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Miley births was 2008 (2,652 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Miley. 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 Miley with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Miley is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 75 boys registered with the name since 1880.
- • Miley is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 14 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
15K
~ 1 in 23,444 Americans
Peak year
2008
2,652 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
1957 SSA rank
#387
Tracked since 1889
Census
Miley in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 10,710 people with the first name Miley, which placed it at #2,354 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
#2,354
National first-name rank
People counted
11K
10,710 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
3.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
55.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Miley
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Miley is White at 55.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (30.1%) and Black (4.9%). 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 Miley 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 Miley at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White55.1% · 5,896
- Hispanic or Latino30.1% · 3,229
- Black or African American4.9% · 526
- Two or more races4.3% · 463
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.2% · 448
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.4% · 148
Gender
Gender distribution for Miley
Out of the 14,872 babies given the name Miley since 1880, 99.5% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Miley as a male name
- Ranked #3,457 in 1957
- 7 male births in 1957
- Peak: 1927 (9 births)
Miley as a female name
- Ranked #387 in 2024
- 813 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2008 (2,652 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Miley leans strongly female. 10,590 people counted with this name were female (98.9%), compared with 121 male bearers (1.1%).
Popularity
Miley: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Miley from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 6,075 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Miley remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Miley 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 Miley during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Mileys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 49 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Miley, while Alaska, Vermont, New Hampshire recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 283 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Miley
The name Miley is a diminutive form of the name Millicent, which is derived from the Old French name Milicent or Melisende. Milicent is a combination of two words – "milis" meaning "sweet" and "centia" meaning "pure" or "innocent". The name Milicent was popularized in the Middle Ages and was particularly common among the nobility in France and England.
The earliest known bearer of the name Miley was Miley de Courtenay, a French noblewoman who lived in the 13th century. She was the daughter of Robert de Courtenay, a nobleman who participated in the Fifth Crusade. Miley de Courtenay's name was recorded in various documents and charters from that time period.
Another notable historical figure with the name Miley was Miley of Aylesford, an English anchoress and mystic who lived in the 13th century. She was known for her pious life and her visions, which were recorded in a book called "The Revelations of Miley of Aylesford".
In the 16th century, there was a Miley Parnell, who was an English poet and translator. She is best known for her translations of works by the ancient Roman poet Ovid.
In the 18th century, Miley Griffiths was a Welsh botanist and naturalist. She was one of the first women to make significant contributions to the field of botany and is credited with discovering several new plant species.
Miley Twyman was an American abolitionist and activist who lived in the 19th century. She was a free Black woman who fought against slavery and advocated for the rights of African Americans.
While the name Miley has its roots in the Middle Ages and has been used throughout history, it is worth noting that its popularity has fluctuated over time. The name experienced a resurgence in recent decades, likely due to the fame of the American singer and actress Miley Cyrus, whose birth name is Destiny Hope Cyrus but who has been known professionally as Miley since her childhood.
People
Miley + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Miley 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
Miley: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Miley?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 14,620 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Miley 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 23,444 US residents.
Is Miley a common name?
We classify Miley as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 14,872 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Miley most popular?
The single biggest year for Miley was 2008, when 2,652 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Miley is about 14 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Miley in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 10,710 people with the name Miley, or 3.55 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,354 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 Miley 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 Miley?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Miley leans strongly female. 10,590 people counted with this name were female (98.9%), compared with 121 male bearers (1.1%). 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 Miley?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Miley is White at 55.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (30.1%) and Black (4.9%). 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 Miley most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Miley in the 2020 Census, accounting for 55.1% (5,896 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 Miley in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Miley a female name?
Yes, 99.5% of people registered as Miley 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 Miley still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Miley 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 Miley 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 common is the name Miley?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.