Miles Name Meaning

A name that gives us miles of smiles, Miles is a Latin name meaning “soldier.” He’s a timeless classic yet has never reached the point of overuse, rising steadily in popularity over the years. Parents love his simple but polished styling, retaining a regal air to him while remaining accessible.

Miles is a mature name, but a little boy can hold the name easily. He can also be softened with the adorable nickname Milo if you choose. He isn’t a limited name either, working well in both formal and informal settings, never feeling too cutesy or childish.

His recent rise in popularity can be attributed to several things including comic books, as he appears as Spider-Man in the Marvel Universe. He is also a beloved Star Trek character, Miles O’Brien. Miles Davis has also had a significant influence on the name, giving it soulful jazz vibes you can’t help but love. Of course, his appearance as a celebrity baby name hasn’t hurt his popularity either, with Eddie Murphy, John Cusack, and John Legend all welcoming little Miles into their families.

Miles can also be spelled as Myles, though the traditional spelling is more common. Similar names include Niles and Micah.

Infographic of Miles name meaning, which is Meaning soldier, Miles is a Latin name.
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Miles Name Popularity

How popular is the name Miles? Here’s everything we know.

Year Rank # Births % Births
1910 392 16 0.0045%
1911 375 23 0.0062%
1912 458 37 0.0073%
1913 427 63 0.0111%
1914 433 82 0.0118%
1915 403 140 0.0154%
1916 395 157 0.0163%
1917 381 176 0.0176%
1918 384 198 0.0184%
1919 375 198 0.0189%
1920 406 176 0.0158%
1921 406 185 0.0162%
1922 347 249 0.0224%
1923 400 183 0.0163%
1924 408 187 0.0161%
1925 394 194 0.0172%
1926 399 183 0.0166%
1927 439 159 0.0144%
1928 418 163 0.0152%
1929 448 134 0.0129%
1930 532 88 0.0084%
1931 441 128 0.013%
1932 409 150 0.0152%
1933 495 93 0.01%
1934 529 85 0.0088%
1935 478 103 0.0106%
1936 452 116 0.012%
1937 473 104 0.0106%
1938 498 101 0.0099%
1939 479 100 0.0098%
1940 527 83 0.0078%
1941 485 111 0.0099%
1942 492 114 0.009%
1943 574 79 0.0061%
1944 530 93 0.0075%
1945 505 105 0.0086%
1946 492 131 0.0089%
1947 418 225 0.0135%
1948 419 217 0.0136%
1949 409 233 0.0145%
1950 376 285 0.0177%
1951 393 254 0.015%
1952 407 247 0.0142%
1953 419 241 0.0136%
1954 383 302 0.0165%
1955 424 258 0.014%
1956 430 270 0.0143%
1957 438 267 0.0139%
1958 445 269 0.0142%
1959 459 255 0.0134%
1960 450 278 0.0147%
1961 452 273 0.0145%
1962 416 337 0.0184%
1963 441 285 0.0159%
1964 454 261 0.0148%
1965 452 252 0.0154%
1966 545 149 0.0095%
1967 560 132 0.0087%
1968 543 142 0.0095%
1969 555 153 0.0099%
1970 557 167 0.0105%
1971 652 115 0.0077%
1972 572 148 0.0109%
1973 558 156 0.012%
1974 584 140 0.0108%
1975 572 150 0.0117%
1976 607 135 0.0105%
1977 580 159 0.0118%
1978 580 163 0.0121%
1979 489 241 0.0171%
1980 516 228 0.0156%
1981 502 233 0.0159%
1982 417 358 0.024%
1983 452 299 0.0203%
1984 409 364 0.0245%
1985 403 400 0.0264%
1986 273 744 0.0493%
1987 260 812 0.0532%
1988 261 866 0.0556%
1989 262 940 0.0583%
1990 268 968 0.0584%
1991 274 952 0.0584%
1992 282 988 0.0619%
1993 265 1,049 0.0673%
1994 290 916 0.0597%
1995 327 755 0.0501%
1996 320 805 0.0538%
1997 294 916 0.0619%
1998 253 1,163 0.0777%
1999 281 1,030 0.0688%
2000 256 1,283 0.084%
2001 245 1,364 0.0905%
2002 237 1,404 0.0937%
2003 228 1,494 0.0982%
2004 220 1,569 0.1029%
2005 210 1,742 0.1139%
2006 199 1,930 0.1233%
2007 189 2,118 0.1342%
2008 166 2,354 0.1523%
2009 161 2,395 0.1602%
2010 137 2,864 0.1987%
2011 115 3,353 0.2353%
2012 111 3,258 0.2286%
2013 115 3,413 0.2397%
2014 108 3,680 0.2526%
2015 107 3,731 0.2564%
2016 105 3,717 0.2578%
2017 110 3,593 0.2574%
2018 97 3,964 0.2885%
2019 75 4,828 0.3566%
2020 60 5,105 0.4011%
2021 54 5,694 0.4658%
2022 57 5,382 0.408%

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Data via SSA.gov.

Names Like Miles

If you like Miles, you’ll love these other names like Miles.

What names are variants of Miles?

Mix it up with these names that are a variation of the name Miles.

Name Meaning Origin Popularity Other Gender
Milan

Eager, laborious or rival; a coming together

Slavic

Milo

Soldier

German

Myles

Soldier

Latin

Mylo

What names sound like Miles?

If you like how Miles sounds, you might also like these names that sound like Miles.

Name Meaning Origin Popularity Other Gender
Milesio

Careful, attentive

Spanish

Mills

English

Lists With Miles

Find inspiration in these baby boy name lists featuring the name Miles.

Siblings of Miles

Mamas with kids named Miles also have kids with these names.

Name Meaning Origin Popularity Other Gender
Graham

Gravelled homestead

English

Joseph

Jehovah will increase

Hebrew

Julianna

Youthful and downy

Latin

Lucy

Of the light

English

Ophelia

Help

Greek

28 Comments

  1. My husband chose the name Miles. He’s always liked the name and I do too. Miles Davis was his inspiration and I have noticed the name Miles is popular in 2024. If you do name your boy Miles, be prepared for people to jokingly call him “Kilometers”. Miles is a strong name and will age well.

    Reply

  2. Good name for all ages

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  3. It is a name that was on my and my husband’s baby name list from the time we started discussing having kids. We decided on Miles because we love it with his middle name. And also because the meaning of the name Miles is “gift from God” – after trying for several months, getting pregnant, miscarrying, trying for another year, and finally getting pregnant with Miles after fertility treatment, Miles really is a gift from God! He is such a heavenly baby with a strong spirit. He’s a happy baby & a joy!

    Reply

  4. We picked Miles as our son’s name because of the Into the Spiderverse character Miles Morales. It was suggested to us by our 8 year old nephew, who loves the movie. It fit perfectly because my husband has always loved that character and coincidentally had taken our nephew to see the movie in theaters. Also, the character is Afro-Latino, and so is our son.

    Reply

  5. Before we got pregnant we were praying about a word for the year and my husband got the word servant/service. We spent the year researching what being a servant means and looking for ways to serve those around us. When we got pregnant sign our first babe and found out it was a boy we started looking at names. We quickly realized we don’t like many boy names haha. We eventually found the name Miles and both liked it. We wanted to know what it meant and as soon as we saw that it meant servant we knew that was his name.

    Miles means – servant, merciful, and soldier. Our prayer is that our sweet babe will be a servant, that he will be humble and with love serve those around him. We pray he will be merciful, extending compassion and kindness. We pray he will be a soldier, a little warrior who sees those others dismiss and fights for the vulnerable and weak.

    Elliot means – the Lord is my God. We pray our sweet son will know the Lord intimately as his personal father and God.

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  6. My husband and I were looking for a name that wasn’t generic but not too crazy and we thought Miles was just perfect

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  7. It felt soft and loving for our first baby boy.

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  8. We are Catholic and chose Miles because they have a history of usage in Ireland as an anglicization of the old Irish name Maolmhuire, which means “servant of the Virgin Mary.

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  9. I’d come miles with IVF to get here. The donor is many miles away and there’s a family friend named Miles.

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  10. My husband and I both resonated with this name almost immediately — I think it sounds very gentle, but it means soldier, and I like the combination of strength wrapped in gentleness.

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  11. After much debate for boy’s names, we chose the name Miles because it had been appearing several times throughout our pregnancy and we couldn’t agree fully on another name.
    My husband also loved this name because of Miles Morales, a SpiderMan character.

    Reply

  12. After much debate for boy’s names, we chose the name Miles because it had been appearing several times throughout our pregnancy and we couldn’t agree fully on another name.

    Reply

  13. I chose miles because to me its a strong name

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  14. My husband suggested it and it grew on me. I’m huge on meanings of names and the pairing of Miles which means Merciful Soldier with William (Resolute Protection) made my eyes pop open! Our Miles is almost 6 and he’s exactly the smiley little guy I imagined a Miles would be. I always get compliments on his name.

    Reply

  15. My husband and I wanted a short and sweet name, and we loved how much personality was packed into it.

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  16. We chose the name miles because he was such a calm quiet peaceful baby. We had a hard time making him cry. When we looked up names with this meaning we found milo and the English version is Miles so we went with it.

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  17. It’s a cute name

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  18. Miles is the best baby name a family must have among their children. I love music and I have love the name even before I gave birth to my son ‘MILES’. I first heard it from a character named Miles in a movie ‘I’m in love with a church girl’

    Miles is a strong name but easy to pronouns

    Reply

  19. My cousin sent me a list of boy names that he was considering for his own son but after his 3rd girl he retired all of his boy names (lol) and Miles stood out to me the most. It was most important to me that my son had a name that was easy to spell after years if people spelling and pronouncing my name wrong I couldn’t bear have my son suffer the same – (though I love my own name)! despite my best efforts , a day after he was born the nurse asked me if it was spelled with a “Y”as in Myles so I guess the legacy of having to spell his name will continue. I also liked how it sounds like a cute baby name but appropriate name for an adult, a name that he can grow into and make his own. We also wanted an M name because my husbands nephews all have M names and we wanted our son, the youngest, to be a part of that tradition. It is the perfect name for him! Since we named him that I’ve met 4 other babies born around the same time named Miles and so many characters on TV now named Miles so it’s also the perfect name for lots of people lol!

    Reply

  20. Miles Sebastian comes from Miles Davis, and our love of music. We just liked the name Sebastian, although it did take us FOREVER to find it. His nicknames is Bash.

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  21. His dad came up with the first name I came up with the middle name and last name

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  22. I chose the name Miles because it means unstoppable Force. If you look up the name Miles Davis. You will see why I chose his name.

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  23. It’s literal meaning in distance gives reference to the endurance and adventure-seeking nature that we hope to pass down to him.

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  24. My boyfriend came up with the name

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  25. Before we got pregnant, we had a different name picked out. When we got pregnant, we decided we couldn’t name him our choice b/c that name was for our imaginary baby Haha! So we decided to look at a baby naming site and Miles happened to be on a list and both my husband and I fell in love! Miles is the perfect name for our chill little guy!

    Reply

  26. My husband picked it from star trek
    We love it! It’s not too popular but not uncommon. It makes you smile when you say it!

    Reply

  27. I like older, less common names.

    Reply

  28. When we set out to pick baby names we follow a few criteria. First we didn’t like names to be in the “Top 100” as well as a more personal rule that we just don’t want to know anyone that already has that name. Miles fit the bill with both of those, while being popular but not too popular and we didn’t have any friends or friends’ children named Miles.

    That and we love music, so Miles Davis was an inspiration. The first song our Miles heard on the way home from the hospital was Shhh…It’s Peaceful from In A Silent Way by Miles Davis.

    Reply

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