Mila
Meaning
dear, gracious (short form of Ludmila/Camila/Emilia); increasingly popular in Russia and the Netherlands and one of the fastest US risers
The story
Mila is a small Slavic word full of warmth: the root mil means dear or gracious, and Mila lives as the affectionate short form of names like Ludmila, Camila, and Emilia. Its credentials in Eastern Europe are old, where Saint Ludmila of Bohemia, grandmother of Good King Wenceslas, carried the mother name a thousand years ago, and today Mila is increasingly popular from Russia to the Netherlands. Its American story is astonishingly compressed: the name kept only a bare foothold in the records through the whole twentieth century, then caught fire in the 2000s. The actress Mila Kunis rose to fame in those same years, and while no one can prove she lit the match, the timing is hard to ignore. One of the fastest risers of its generation, Mila reached its strongest decade in the 2020s and is still climbing.
The formal names behind Mila
Mila is an established short form of each of these names.
Camila · Spanish origin · in Roman legend the swift warrior maiden of the Volsci, from camillus, a youth who served at the altar; the Spanish and Portuguese spelling of Camilla, and one of Latin America's defining girls' names of recent decades
Milagros · Spanish origin · miracles, a Marian devotional name; a warm and rare classic Spain gem
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Mila peaked in the 2020s.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
4,718 people · the #2,855 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 43,478 · median age 23
Among people named Mila living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 1990s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 331 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Mila
Most people given the name Mila in the United States are children or teenagers today. The name belongs to this generation.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Mila deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Mila truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Mila fits with your family’s names and surname.
Keep exploring
Names like Mila · Middle names for Mila · Global crossover names · Short names
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