Malayah
Malayah was given to 223 girls in 2025, #1,084 among girls’ names; 4,367 Americans have been recorded with it since 1994 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 4,340 Americans named Malayah and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 9 years old and half are between 5 and 14.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Malayah by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Malayah?
#1,084 among girls’ names, 2025
Malayah rose from #1,202 in 2015 to #1,084 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 0.12 to 0.14 per 1,000.
333 babies in 2022, the peak
Malayah peaked in 2022, when 333 girls were given it, #842 among girls’ names. The 223 births of 2025 are 67% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 223 | #1,084 | 0.14 |
| 2024 | 233 | #1,068 | 0.14 |
| 2023 | 267 | #969 | 0.17 |
| 2022 | 333 | #842 | 0.20 |
| 2021 | 307 | #887 | 0.19 |
| 2020 | 272 | #944 | 0.17 |
| 2019 | 291 | #911 | 0.17 |
| 2018 | 228 | #1,096 | 0.13 |
| 2017 | 246 | #1,048 | 0.14 |
| 2016 | 241 | #1,079 | 0.14 |
Every recorded year (30)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 208 | #1,202 | 0.12 |
| 2014 | 207 | #1,185 | 0.12 |
| 2013 | 210 | #1,147 | 0.12 |
| 2012 | 173 | #1,354 | 0.10 |
| 2011 | 176 | #1,327 | 0.10 |
| 2010 | 135 | #1,609 | 0.08 |
| 2009 | 163 | #1,437 | 0.09 |
| 2008 | 107 | #1,974 | 0.06 |
| 2007 | 67 | #2,738 | 0.03 |
| 2006 | 62 | #2,838 | 0.03 |
| 2005 | 52 | #3,071 | 0.03 |
| 2004 | 43 | #3,468 | 0.02 |
| 2003 | 30 | #4,370 | 0.02 |
| 2002 | 30 | #4,238 | 0.02 |
| 2001 | 17 | #6,505 | 0.01 |
| 2000 | 17 | #6,372 | 0.01 |
| 1999 | 6 | #13,741 | under 0.01 |
| 1998 | 12 | #7,839 | 0.01 |
| 1997 | 6 | #13,085 | under 0.01 |
| 1994 | 5 | #14,816 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Malayah a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Malayah has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 30 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Malayah: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Malayah, and how old are they?
4,340 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 4,367 Americans ever recorded as Malayah. The median Malayah alive today is 9 years old; half are between 5 and 14.
The 2020 Census counted 1,993 people named Malayah (1,988 women and girls, 5 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 2,782 born in the U.S. The Census count is 28% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 5 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,090 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 3,250 |
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 Malayah born?
The states with the most babies named Malayah are California, Florida and Pennsylvania, with 32% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 22 | #1,175 | 0.8× |
| Florida | 19 | #849 | 1.0× |
| Pennsylvania | 15 | #673 | 1.3× |
| Michigan | 14 | #580 | 1.5× |
| Ohio | 14 | #698 | 1.2× |
| Texas | 12 | #1,873 | 0.7× |
| Georgia | 12 | #836 | 1.5× |
| Illinois | 10 | #897 | 1.3× |
| New York | 10 | #1,384 | 0.4× |
| North Carolina | 8 | #1,112 | 1.5× |
Where Malayah is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Malayah is most over-represented in Louisiana: since 1994 it was given 1.7 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 Malayah 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 46,786 babies since 1880, Malayah is the fifth most given (9.3% of them). In 2025 it was given to 223 of their 1,442 babies (15%), the third most given that year.
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 Malayah
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 Malayah and names like it
- Compare Malayah and MaliyahBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sMalayah peaked in 2022.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Malayah since 1910.
- The top names of 2022The year the most babies were named Malayah.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Malayah alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with MMost given first.