Malaya
Malaya was given to 351 girls in 2025, #775 among girls’ names; 8,467 Americans have been recorded with it since 1977 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 8,400 Americans named Malaya and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 11 years old and half are between 6 and 17.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Malaya by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Malaya?
#775 among girls’ names, 2025
Malaya fell from #726 in 2015 to #775 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born held at 0.22 per 1,000.
449 babies in 2014, the peak
Malaya peaked in 2014, when 449 girls were given it, #638 among girls’ names. The 351 births of 2025 are 78% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 351 | #775 | 0.22 |
| 2024 | 341 | #813 | 0.21 |
| 2023 | 315 | #852 | 0.20 |
| 2022 | 416 | #708 | 0.25 |
| 2021 | 447 | #666 | 0.27 |
| 2020 | 429 | #667 | 0.27 |
| 2019 | 432 | #671 | 0.26 |
| 2018 | 380 | #736 | 0.22 |
| 2017 | 413 | #702 | 0.24 |
| 2016 | 442 | #667 | 0.25 |
Every recorded year (45)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 391 | #726 | 0.22 |
| 2014 | 449 | #638 | 0.25 |
| 2013 | 444 | #633 | 0.25 |
| 2012 | 350 | #783 | 0.20 |
| 2011 | 288 | #908 | 0.16 |
| 2010 | 318 | #846 | 0.18 |
| 2009 | 376 | #758 | 0.20 |
| 2008 | 263 | #1,008 | 0.14 |
| 2007 | 261 | #1,017 | 0.14 |
| 2006 | 276 | #947 | 0.15 |
| 2005 | 212 | #1,118 | 0.11 |
| 2004 | 169 | #1,271 | 0.09 |
| 2003 | 126 | #1,538 | 0.07 |
| 2002 | 116 | #1,600 | 0.06 |
| 2001 | 97 | #1,824 | 0.05 |
| 2000 | 84 | #1,990 | 0.05 |
| 1999 | 48 | #2,832 | 0.03 |
| 1998 | 42 | #3,047 | 0.02 |
| 1997 | 28 | #3,963 | 0.02 |
| 1996 | 26 | #4,132 | 0.01 |
| 1995 | 16 | #5,841 | 0.01 |
| 1994 | 19 | #5,148 | 0.01 |
| 1993 | 14 | #6,473 | 0.01 |
| 1992 | 12 | #7,327 | 0.01 |
| 1991 | 13 | #6,830 | 0.01 |
| 1990 | 7 | #10,906 | under 0.01 |
| 1989 | 5 | #13,669 | under 0.01 |
| 1988 | 7 | #9,912 | under 0.01 |
| 1984 | 5 | #11,449 | under 0.01 |
| 1982 | 6 | #9,944 | under 0.01 |
| 1981 | 5 | #11,405 | under 0.01 |
| 1980 | 5 | #11,417 | under 0.01 |
| 1979 | 7 | #8,599 | under 0.01 |
| 1978 | 5 | #10,726 | under 0.01 |
| 1977 | 11 | #5,726 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Malaya a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Malaya has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 45 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Malaya: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Malaya, and how old are they?
8,400 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 8,467 Americans ever recorded as Malaya. The median Malaya alive today is 11 years old; half are between 6 and 17.
The 2020 Census counted 5,161 people named Malaya (5,133 women and girls, 28 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 6,231 born in the U.S. The Census count is 17% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 27 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 132 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 3,030 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 5,220 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
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).
Where are babies named Malaya born?
The states with the most babies named Malaya are California, Texas and Florida, with 29% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 37 | #807 | 0.9× |
| Texas | 29 | #997 | 0.6× |
| Florida | 26 | #668 | 1.0× |
| Georgia | 26 | #441 | 1.4× |
| North Carolina | 17 | #629 | 1.3× |
| Virginia | 15 | #532 | 1.1× |
| Ohio | 13 | #731 | 1.2× |
| New York | 13 | #1,129 | 0.5× |
| Tennessee | 13 | #591 | 1.1× |
| Michigan | 12 | #670 | 1.4× |
Where Malaya is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Malaya is most over-represented in Louisiana: since 1977 it was given 2.0 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Malaya with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 69,192 babies since 1880, Malaya is the third most given (12% of them). In 2025 it was given to 351 of their 2,026 babies (17%), again the third 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 Malaya
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
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 Malaya and names like it
- Compare Malaya and MaliaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sMalaya peaked in 2014.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Malaya since 1910.
- The top names of 2014The year the most babies were named Malaya.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Malaya alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with MMost given first.