Nyla
- Pronunciation
- [Ny-la]
- Gender
- Female
- Meaning
- From The River Nile.
- Origin
- Greek
About the Name Nyla
Nyla is a modern American name with multiple proposed origins. The most credible direct etymology connects Nyla to a creative blend of Layla and Lyla. A separate Arabic line connects Nyla to nila meaning "indigo" or "won, achieved." A third Sanskrit line connects Nyla to nila meaning "blue" or "dark blue" — referring to the color of the night sky.
The name has been used in modern American naming since the 1990s, particularly within African-American and South-Asian-American naming communities. The contemporary surge is part of the broader return to short, vowel-rich, multi-cultural girls' names alongside Lyla, Mya, and Aria.
Nyla's American climb is recent: the name climbed from outside the US top 1000 in 2000 to the US top 200 girls' rank by 2014 and the top 200 since. Notable bearers include various contemporary American athletes, fashion models, and reality-TV personalities. The name's appeal sits in three contemporary American naming preferences: the multi-cultural etymological flexibility, the popular two-syllable -yla ending family, and the modern Y-spelling visual register that signals contemporary aesthetic. Common nicknames are scarce since the name is already short — Ny and the rare Nyly each occasionally appear; the alternate spellings Nila, Nyla, and Nylah each have their own SSA tracking. International forms include Nila (Sanskrit/Hindi), Nila (Arabic), and the related Layla/Lyla family.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Nyla
US Popularity History (2001–2025)
Annual US births named Nyla by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2024 with 1,339 girls named Nyla (girl rank #230 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #236 for girls (1,315 US births). That's 6 places below its 2024 peak.
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Where in the US Is Nyla Most Popular?
Average girl-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's girls-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Nyla the strongest states are Rhode Island, Georgia, Delaware.
Strongest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rhode Island | #131 | 40 |
| 2 | Georgia | #142 | 648 |
| 3 | Delaware | #146 | 53 |
| 4 | Hawaii | #149 | 20 |
| 5 | Louisiana | #158 | 281 |
| 6 | Mississippi | #159 | 174 |
| 7 | South Carolina | #161 | 266 |
| 8 | North Carolina | #162 | 561 |
| 9 | Maryland | #173 | 297 |
| 10 | District of Columbia | #175 | 58 |
Weakest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oregon | #587 | 39 |
| 2 | Utah | #551 | 50 |
| 3 | Colorado | #549 | 98 |
| 4 | Washington | #543 | 125 |
| 5 | Minnesota | #485 | 103 |
| 6 | Arizona | #483 | 139 |
| 7 | Iowa | #473 | 62 |
| 8 | Wisconsin | #461 | 112 |
| 9 | California | #410 | 818 |
| 10 | Kentucky | #371 | 118 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Nyla in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Looking for names like Nyla?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Nyla to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Nyla against today's most popular girls-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).