Mila · Daily fortune

Mila is a feminine name from the Slavic element milŭ, meaning "gracious, dear". Behind the Name explains that it began as a short form of longer names containing that element, and lists it in Serbian, Croatian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Slovene, Ukrainian and Russian use. Wikipedia records other, unrelated Milas: a Spanish short form of Milagros ("miracles"), an Arabic name from Mayla, a Turkish shortening of Almila, and a gender-neutral Tibetan name. In the United States Mila is now firmly mainstream, ranking #43 among girls' names in 2025.

Behind the Name gives the Slavic derivation without hedging: Mila comes "From the Slavic element milŭ meaning 'gracious, dear', originally a short form of names containing that element" — the same element behind Milena, Milka, Milada and Milanka. Wikipedia's article on the given name agrees for the Slavic line, describing Mila as a diminutive of names "beginning or ending with Mila which derived from the element Mil (Мил) meaning 'gracious' or 'dear'", and then documents several independent names that share the spelling. Because those other Milas are separate names rather than competing etymologies for one name, a bearer's Mila means whichever origin her family intended.

Mila's documented history is the history of an abbreviation. Behind the Name's account is that it started life as a short form of longer Slavic compounds built on milŭ — the family that includes Milena, Milada, Milanka and Milka — and then became a name in its own right across the South and East Slavic languages. Wikipedia's article shows the spelling being independently arrived at elsewhere: as clipped Spanish Milagros, as Turkish Almila shortened, as an Arabic word-name, and as a Tibetan name linked to the yogi Milarepa. The bearers Wikipedia names are largely twentieth- and twenty-first-century figures — the Dalmatian Italian fashion designer Mila Schön (1916–2008), the American suffragist and minister Mila Tupper Maynard (1864–1926) — with the Soviet-born American actress Mila Kunis (born 1983) the most visible recent bearer. The American rise that put Mila at #43 for girls in 2025 is visible in the SSA data but was not analysed year by year in this pass.

Mila ranked #43 for girls in the United States in 2025 (Social Security Administration). Behind the Name lists it as current in seven Slavic languages, and Wikipedia's bearer list spans Europe, the Americas and Australia, so the name is not confined to any one of its origins. Non-US national rankings were not fetched for this profile.

The vowels are the stable part: MEE-lah nearly everywhere, stress on the first syllable. Behind the Name publishes IPA for three Slavic languages, all with a dark or palatalised l — Macedonian /ˈmi.ɫa/, Ukrainian /ˈmʲi.ɫɐ/, Russian /ˈmʲi.ɫə/ — and none for English, so the English respelling below is the common anglicisation rather than a sourced transcription.

Mila is the kind of name that sounds like a nickname and works as a full one: two soft syllables, no hard consonants, and an ending that fits the current wave of Ava, Nora and Isla. It is short enough to survive any surname and internationally legible in a way few short names are — but its very smoothness makes it blend into that wave rather than stand apart from it. Parents drawn to Mila for its Slavic meaning should know that most Americans hearing it will place it stylistically, not etymologically.

Only bearers named in the sources consulted for this profile are listed; Wikipedia's full list of people named Mila was not mined.

Names that share Mila's sound, its Slavic root, or its short-and-international style.