Mala
Mala was given to 10 girls in 2025, #9,858 among girls’ names; 698 Americans have been recorded with it since 1951 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Mala by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Mala?
#9,858 among girls’ names, 2025
Mala rose from #10,593 in 2015 to #9,858 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 5.6 to 6.2 per million.
51 babies in 1956, the peak
Mala peaked in 1956, when 51 girls were given it, #1,497 among girls’ names. The 10 births of 2025 are 20% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 10 | #9,858 | 6.2 |
| 2023 | 16 | #7,127 | 10.0 |
| 2022 | 8 | #11,844 | 4.9 |
| 2021 | 8 | #11,779 | 4.9 |
| 2020 | 10 | #10,001 | 6.2 |
| 2019 | 7 | #13,285 | 4.2 |
| 2018 | 17 | #6,984 | 10.0 |
| 2017 | 10 | #10,440 | 5.8 |
| 2016 | 9 | #11,441 | 5.1 |
| 2015 | 10 | #10,593 | 5.6 |
Every recorded year (64)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 7 | #14,022 | 3.9 |
| 2013 | 9 | #11,598 | 5.1 |
| 2012 | 12 | #9,495 | 6.8 |
| 2011 | 6 | #16,056 | 3.4 |
| 2010 | 12 | #9,581 | 6.8 |
| 2008 | 7 | #14,795 | 3.7 |
| 2006 | 6 | #16,360 | 3.2 |
| 2005 | 5 | #18,150 | 2.7 |
| 2004 | 5 | #17,773 | 2.7 |
| 2003 | 8 | #11,978 | 4.4 |
| 1999 | 6 | #13,738 | 3.4 |
| 1998 | 7 | #11,902 | 4.0 |
| 1997 | 5 | #15,176 | 2.9 |
| 1996 | 10 | #8,576 | 5.7 |
| 1994 | 8 | #10,144 | 4.5 |
| 1993 | 6 | #12,794 | 3.3 |
| 1992 | 9 | #9,195 | 4.9 |
| 1991 | 9 | #9,040 | 4.8 |
| 1989 | 6 | #11,738 | 3.3 |
| 1988 | 7 | #9,911 | 3.9 |
| 1987 | 7 | #9,392 | 4.0 |
| 1986 | 10 | #6,908 | 5.8 |
| 1985 | 13 | #5,548 | 7.6 |
| 1983 | 9 | #7,063 | 5.4 |
| 1981 | 10 | #6,618 | 6.0 |
| 1980 | 8 | #7,830 | 4.8 |
| 1979 | 8 | #7,725 | 5.0 |
| 1978 | 13 | #5,087 | 8.5 |
| 1976 | 9 | #6,371 | 6.1 |
| 1975 | 15 | #4,272 | 10.3 |
| 1974 | 6 | #8,292 | 4.1 |
| 1973 | 7 | #7,103 | 4.8 |
| 1972 | 6 | #7,827 | 3.9 |
| 1971 | 7 | #7,042 | 4.2 |
| 1970 | 12 | #4,653 | 6.9 |
| 1969 | 10 | #4,904 | 5.9 |
| 1968 | 9 | #5,002 | 5.5 |
| 1967 | 11 | #4,196 | 6.7 |
| 1966 | 10 | #4,365 | 5.9 |
| 1965 | 12 | #3,857 | 6.8 |
| 1964 | 15 | #3,452 | 7.9 |
| 1963 | 11 | #4,166 | 5.7 |
| 1962 | 13 | #3,700 | 6.6 |
| 1961 | 21 | #2,719 | 10.4 |
| 1960 | 16 | #3,163 | 7.9 |
| 1959 | 18 | #2,825 | 8.9 |
| 1958 | 19 | #2,717 | 9.4 |
| 1957 | 17 | #2,885 | 8.3 |
| 1956 | 51 | #1,497 | 25.4 |
| 1955 | 17 | #2,794 | 8.7 |
| 1954 | 18 | #2,661 | 9.3 |
| 1953 | 13 | #3,210 | 6.9 |
| 1952 | 10 | #3,696 | 5.4 |
| 1951 | 12 | #3,219 | 6.7 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Mala a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Mala has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 64 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Mala: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Mala, and how old are they?
An estimated 636 Americans named Mala and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (91% of everyone recorded); the median is 48 years old and half are between 20 and 65. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 1,799 people named Mala (1,748 women and girls, 51 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 605 born in the U.S. The Census count is 3.0 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census records the name people give, which for many is the short form Mala rather than the name on their birth record, and it counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 64,700 babies since 1880, Mala is the eighth most given (1.1% of them). In 2025 it was given to 10 of their 1,643 babies (<1%), again the eighth most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Mala
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
| Name | Recorded | 1950-2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Melodie | 10,502 |
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Mala and names like it
- Compare Mala and MaliaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1950sMala peaked in 1956.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Mala since 1910.
- The top names of 1956The year the most babies were named Mala.
- The names of the Baby BoomersMost people named Mala alive today were born 1946-1964.
- Names starting with MMost given first.