Miles - Origin and Meaning of the name

[ 1 syll. mi-les, mil-es ] The boy name Miles is pronounced MAYLZ or MAYahLZ ^KEY. Miles' language of origin is Latin and it is predominantly used in the English language. The name is of disputed origin. Its medieval form was the Roman name Milo (Latin), itself from the element miles ('soldier'), possibly influenced from the association with the name Michael and the archangel Michael, the patron saint of soldiers. Another derivation suggests the source as the Slavic mil ('favor, grace'). The name has been used by English speakers since its introduction from the Norman Conquest, and it saw a moderate revival in the 18th century. In Ireland, it is taken as the Anglicized form of other names such as Maoileas, Maelmore, and Maolmuire, and the form Myles as the equivalent of the Gaelic Maolra. In Scotland, Myles is taken as the Anglicized form of Maoilios.

A form of Miles is the Czech, Spanish, English, and Slavic Milo. Other forms of Miles include the variant spellings Myles (English) and Mylz (English). See also the related form, the Czech, English, German, and Yiddish Michael.

Miles is a popular baby boy name, and it is also viewed as trendy. The name has been increasing in popularity since the 1940s. At the recent height of its usage in 2008, 0.108% of baby boys were given the name Miles. It had a ranking of #167 then. Within all boy names in its family, Miles was the 2nd most popular after the Czech, English, German, and Yiddish Michael in 2008. It was more widely used than Miles by 9 times in that year.

Baby names that sound like Miles include the English Myles, the English Malc, the Hebrew Melech, the English Mylz, the Arabic Malak, the Arabic Malek, the Arabic Malik, the Hebrew Malki, the English Malochai, the Polish Milek, the Czech Milko, the Hungarian and Slavic Milos, the Arabic Maalik, the English Malachai, the English and Hebrew Malachi, the English Malachie, the English Malachy, the English Malakhi, the Hebrew Malchijah, and the German Maleachi.

A famous person named Miles is Miles Davis, Trumpeter, born Miles Dewey Davis, Jr. 26 May 1926 - 28 September 1991, Alton, Illinois.

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