Sure, your cousin's best friend's sister's Aunt may have been named Miley back in the winter of '42 after old Great Grandpa Miles, but the fact remains that this name was relatively rare prior to the fame of Miley Cyrus. The popularity of the name today is attributed to the wealthy American teenager Miley Cyrus and there is no escaping that.
Well, one of my friends was named Miley and she was born LONG before Miley Cyrus was born. This is a very pretty name, but Miley Cyrus kinda ruined that for me.
― Anonymous User 5/25/2009
1
It does seem to have a few people with this name that pre-date the atrocious singer/actress. I know a young woman in her late teens (older than the Cyrus girl) with the same pronunciation, though her name is spelled 'Maile.' It would be an extremely cute name, had Cyrus not ruined it forever.
While Miley may have been used independently of the Hannah Montana star, Miley first entered common usage as a given name in the U.S. in 2007, emerging at 278 on that year's Social Security name list. Alternative spellings Mylee (556) and Mylie (861) also broke the U.S. top 1000 that year.