Myles
A masculine name of Latin origin meaning "soldier" or "merciful".
Name Census estimates that about 57,842 living Americans carry the first name Myles. It sits at #99 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It is a predominantly male name (99.5% of registrations). The average person named Myles today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Myles births was 2024 (3,565 babies). In terms of living bearers, it sits close to Julio (57,579).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Myles. 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 Myles with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Myles is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 307 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • Myles is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 18 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
58K
~ 1 in 5,926 Americans
Peak year
2024
3,565 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2024 SSA rank
#99
Tracked since 1887
Census
Myles in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 38,836 people with the first name Myles, which placed it at #1,069 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
#1,069
National first-name rank
People counted
39K
38,836 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
12.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
54.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Myles
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Myles is White at 54.3%. The next largest groups are Black (25.0%) and Two or More Races (8.7%). 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 Myles 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 Myles at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White54.3% · 21,084
- Black or African American25.0% · 9,714
- Two or more races8.7% · 3,372
- Hispanic or Latino8.6% · 3,340
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.6% · 1,002
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 324
Gender
Gender distribution for Myles
Out of the 61,278 babies given the name Myles since 1880, 99.5% 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.
Myles as a male name
- Ranked #99 in 2024
- 3,551 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (3,551 births)
Myles as a female name
- Ranked #7,821 in 2024
- 14 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2023 (29 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Myles appears almost entirely male. Of the 38,830 people counted with this name, 99.3% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Myles: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Myles 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 17,926 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
Myles 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 Myles during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Myles' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Myles, while Wyoming, Vermont, Alaska recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,104 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Myles
Myles is a masculine given name of English origin, derived from the Latin name Milon, which itself is rooted in the Greek word "milos" meaning "soldier." The name likely emerged in the Middle Ages, as a variant of the more common English name Miles.
The earliest recorded use of the name Myles dates back to the 13th century, appearing in various historical documents and records from England. It was particularly popular among the English nobility and gentry during the medieval period.
One of the earliest known bearers of the name Myles was Sir Myles de Stapleton, a prominent English knight who lived in the late 13th century and served under King Edward I. Another notable figure from this era was Myles Coverdale, an English biblical translator and Puritan preacher who produced the first complete printed translation of the Bible into English in the 16th century (1488-1569).
During the Renaissance and Early Modern period, the name Myles gained further prominence. Sir Myles Partridge (1577-1662) was an English courtier and Member of Parliament who served under King Charles I. Myles Syndercombe (1629-1678) was an English politician and supporter of the Parliamentarian cause during the English Civil War.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, the name continued to be used, though with less frequency. Myles Byrne (1780-1862) was an Irish soldier and memoirist who served in the Irish Rebellion of 1798 and later joined the French Imperial Army under Napoleon. Myles Keogh (1840-1876) was an Irish-born officer in the United States Army who served during the American Civil War and was later killed in the Battle of Little Bighorn.
Other noteworthy historical figures with the name Myles include Myles Standish (c.1584-1656), an English military officer who played a leading role in the Plymouth Colony in present-day Massachusetts, and Myles Dillon (1900-1972), an Irish scholar and professor of Early and Medieval Irish at University College Dublin.
Throughout its history, the name Myles has maintained a strong association with military service and leadership, reflecting its roots as a name derived from the Greek word for "soldier." While not as common as some other English names, it has endured as a distinct and historically significant name across various periods and cultures.
People
Myles + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Myles 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
Myles: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Myles?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 57,842 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Myles 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 5,926 US residents.
Is Myles a common name?
We classify Myles as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 61,278 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Myles most popular?
The single biggest year for Myles was 2024, when 3,565 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Myles 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 Myles in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 38,836 people with the name Myles, or 12.86 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,069 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 Myles 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 Myles?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Myles appears almost entirely male. Of the 38,830 people counted with this name, 99.3% 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 Myles?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Myles is White at 54.3%. The next largest groups are Black (25.0%) and Two or More Races (8.7%). 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 Myles most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Myles in the 2020 Census, accounting for 54.3% (21,084 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 Myles in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Myles a male name?
Yes, 99.5% of people registered as Myles 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 Myles still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Myles 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 Myles 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 Myles?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.