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Home › Baby Names Directory › Khayla

Khayla

♀ Girl

Pronounced KAY-luh /ˈkeɪ.lə/High

Meaning: Khayla is a stylized respelling of Kayla, one of the great American girls' names of the nineteen-eighties and nineties. Kayla arose as an elaboration of Kay or a short form of Michaela — from Michael, Hebrew 'who is like God' — rather than from an ancient Kayla root. The Kh- opening is decorative and does not change the sound or the inherited sense.Low

In 30 seconds: Khayla is a stylized respelling of Kayla (said 'KAY-luh'), the eighties-nineties favorite that grew from Kay or Michaela. The silent Kh- is pure decoration on a familiar sound.
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Origin MediumEnglish
MeaningKhayla is a stylized respelling of Kayla, one of the great American girls' names of the nineteen-eighties and nineties. Kayla arose as an elaboration of Kay or a short form of Michaela — from Michael, Hebrew 'who is like God' — rather than from an ancient Kayla root. The Kh- opening is decorative and does not change the sound or the inherited sense.
U.S. rank (2020)#16359 ↗ Rising
2020 U.S. births5 girls (0.00% of U.S. girls)
Peak year2000
Total births (all-time)≈ 808

Popularity in the U.S. · SSA data

peak 200019872020

U.S. births per year (Social Security Administration, 1880–present). Pink marker = peak year.

SSA data updated May 2026. How we source & verify this data.

History & Origin

Khayla is a respelling of Kayla, which itself was not an old name but a late-twentieth-century coinage — an elaboration of Kay or a clipped Michaela (from Michael, Hebrew 'who is like God'). As Kayla surged, families sought distinctive spellings, and the Kh- form was one result. The meaning it carries is simply the one Kayla carries.

The name tracked Kayla's arc closely, cresting near a few dozen girls a year around 2000 before receding. A girl given Khayla at its peak is now in her twenties, and the spelling reads today as a period marker of the peak-Kayla years rather than a name on the rise.

Did you know? Khayla is spelled with a silent Kh- but says exactly the same as Kayla — a small example of how the nineties respelling craze reached for visual novelty without changing a single spoken sound.
Overall data confidence 58%
References — Khayla — respelling of Kayla; Kayla from Kay/Michaela

Variations

KaylaKailaKaela

Nicknames

KayKayl

Famous Bearers

  • Famous bearers coming soon.

If you like Khayla…

Kayla— the parent name Khayla respells, identical sound
Kaila— a sister spelling of the same eighties-nineties favorite
Makayla— the fuller Michaela-based form in the same family
Shayla— a like two-beat -ayla name of the same era

Explore names like Khayla

By thememodernrespellingnineties

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Frequently Asked

What does the name Khayla mean?

Khayla is a respelling of Kayla, an elaboration of Kay or a short form of Michaela, from Michael, 'who is like God'.

How do you pronounce Khayla?

It's said KAY-luh /ˈkeɪ.lə/ — two syllables, stress on the first; the Kh- is silent.

Is Khayla a boy or girl name?

Khayla is used as a girl's name.

How popular is Khayla?

Khayla was an uncommon respelling that rose with the Kayla trend around the turn of the millennium and has stayed rare since.

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