Myles

The medieval English used the spelling Myles alongside Miles, and in Ireland it became the standard anglicisation of the Irish Maol Mhuire (“servant of Mary”).

The name was carried into England by the Normans in the late eleventh century and appears in twelfth-century English records. The most famous early bearer in American history is Myles Standish (c.

1584-1656), the English military officer hired by the Pilgrims as their defence advisor and one of the founders of Plymouth Colony in 1620.

His role was immortalised by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow”s narrative poem The Courtship of Miles Standish (1858), one of the most widely read American poems of the nineteenth century.

The Irish form Myles was carried by writer Myles na gCopaleen, the pen name of Brian O”Nolan (Flann O”Brien), whose satirical column Cruiskeen Lawn ran in the Irish Times from 1940 to 1966.

In jazz, the spelling Miles is associated with Miles Davis, while Myles appears in the names of the rock vocalist Myles Kennedy of Alter Bridge. In comics, Miles Morales is the Afro-Latino Spider-Man introduced by Marvel in 2011.

According to US Social Security Administration records, Myles appeared in the top 1000 in the late nineteenth century, drifted in the 600s and 700s through most of the twentieth century, and began rising again in the 1990s.

It broke the top 200 in 2018 and reached rank 206 in 2023. The spelling is particularly favoured in African-American families, who often choose it over the simpler Miles.

Contemporary bearers include NFL defensive end Myles Garrett and rapper Myles Truitt.