Milo
A masculine name derived from the Slavic element "mil" meaning "mercy" or "grace".
Name Census estimates that about 35,588 living Americans carry the first name Milo. It sits at #120 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It is a predominantly male name (98.9% of registrations). The average person named Milo today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Milo births was 2022 (3,158 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Milo. 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 Milo with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Milo is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 445 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • Milo 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
36K
~ 1 in 9,631 Americans
Peak year
2022
3,158 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
2024 SSA rank
#120
Tracked since 1880
Census
Milo in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 21,338 people with the first name Milo, which placed it at #1,540 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
#1,540
National first-name rank
People counted
21K
21,338 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
7.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
68.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Milo
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Milo is White at 68.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (15.4%) and Two or More Races (8.4%). 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 Milo 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 Milo at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White68.4% · 14,585
- Hispanic or Latino15.4% · 3,287
- Two or more races8.4% · 1,791
- Black or African American4.3% · 916
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.8% · 600
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 159
Gender
Gender distribution for Milo
Milo leans heavily male at 98.9% of total registrations, but 445 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Milo as a male name
- Ranked #120 in 2024
- 2,988 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2022 (3,111 births)
Milo as a female name
- Ranked #5,537 in 2024
- 23 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2022 (47 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Milo leans strongly male. 20,905 people counted with this name were male (98.0%), compared with 428 female bearers (2.0%).
Popularity
Milo: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Milo from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 14,918 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
Milo 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 Milo during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Milos live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Milo, while Wyoming, Rhode Island, Delaware recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 701 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Milo
The name Milo has its origins in the ancient Germanic languages. It is derived from the Proto-Germanic word "mild," meaning "gentle" or "merciful." The name was initially used as a nickname or byname before becoming a given name in its own right.
In ancient Greek mythology, Milo was the name of a legendary athlete from the city of Croton in southern Italy. He was renowned for his exceptional strength and was said to have carried a bull on his shoulders for several miles. The name may have been adopted by the Greeks as a reflection of his mild and gentle nature, despite his immense physical prowess.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Milo can be found in the writings of the ancient Roman historian Livy. He mentions a Roman consul named Milo who lived in the 2nd century BC. This suggests that the name had spread from its Germanic origins to the Roman world at an early stage.
During the Middle Ages, the name Milo was relatively uncommon but can be found in various historical records and documents. One notable figure was Milo of Nanteuil, a French nobleman who lived in the 11th century and played a significant role in the First Crusade.
In more recent times, several famous individuals have borne the name Milo. Milo Ândjelković (1891-1964) was a Serbian painter and one of the pioneers of modern art in the Balkans. Milo Manara (born 1945) is an Italian comic book writer and artist known for his erotic and surreal works.
Another notable bearer of the name was Milo Yiannopoulos (born 1984), a controversial British political commentator and polemicist. Milo Ventimiglia (born 1977) is an American actor best known for his roles in the television series "Gilmore Girls" and "This Is Us."
Finally, Milo Aukerman (born 1963) is an American musician and singer, best recognized as the lead vocalist of the punk rock band The Descedents.
People
Milo + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Milo 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
Milo: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Milo?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 35,588 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Milo 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 9,631 US residents.
Is Milo a common name?
We classify Milo as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 41,290 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Milo most popular?
The single biggest year for Milo was 2022, when 3,158 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Milo 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 Milo in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 21,338 people with the name Milo, or 7.06 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,540 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 Milo 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 Milo?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Milo leans strongly male. 20,905 people counted with this name were male (98.0%), compared with 428 female bearers (2.0%). 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 Milo?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Milo is White at 68.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (15.4%) and Two or More Races (8.4%). 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 Milo most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Milo in the 2020 Census, accounting for 68.4% (14,585 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 Milo in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Milo a male name?
Yes, 98.9% of people registered as Milo 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 Milo still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Milo 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 Milo 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 Americans are named Milo?
See how many people share the name Milo on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.