Maleah
Maleah was given to 187 girls in 2025, #1,215 among girls’ names; 9,426 Americans have been recorded with it since 1956 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 9,330 Americans named Maleah and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 15 years old and half are between 9 and 20.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Maleah by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Maleah mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Maleah is “a female given name.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Maleah?
#1,215 among girls’ names, 2025
Maleah fell from #834 in 2015 to #1,215 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 0.19 to 0.12 per 1,000.
508 babies in 2009, the peak
Maleah peaked in 2009, when 508 girls were given it, #595 among girls’ names. The 187 births of 2025 are 37% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 187 | #1,215 | 0.12 |
| 2024 | 196 | #1,211 | 0.12 |
| 2023 | 223 | #1,102 | 0.14 |
| 2022 | 266 | #993 | 0.16 |
| 2021 | 310 | #880 | 0.19 |
| 2020 | 309 | #871 | 0.19 |
| 2019 | 424 | #684 | 0.25 |
| 2018 | 342 | #797 | 0.20 |
| 2017 | 366 | #760 | 0.21 |
| 2016 | 377 | #757 | 0.21 |
Every recorded year (60)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 337 | #834 | 0.19 |
| 2014 | 415 | #683 | 0.23 |
| 2013 | 461 | #610 | 0.26 |
| 2012 | 449 | #638 | 0.25 |
| 2011 | 471 | #614 | 0.27 |
| 2010 | 473 | #622 | 0.27 |
| 2009 | 508 | #595 | 0.28 |
| 2008 | 337 | #839 | 0.18 |
| 2007 | 375 | #772 | 0.20 |
| 2006 | 320 | #842 | 0.17 |
| 2005 | 268 | #929 | 0.15 |
| 2004 | 266 | #910 | 0.14 |
| 2003 | 219 | #1,044 | 0.12 |
| 2002 | 256 | #884 | 0.14 |
| 2001 | 214 | #1,005 | 0.12 |
| 2000 | 162 | #1,225 | 0.09 |
| 1999 | 109 | #1,554 | 0.06 |
| 1998 | 94 | #1,700 | 0.05 |
| 1997 | 70 | #2,032 | 0.04 |
| 1996 | 62 | #2,195 | 0.04 |
| 1995 | 49 | #2,569 | 0.03 |
| 1994 | 40 | #2,967 | 0.02 |
| 1993 | 49 | #2,552 | 0.03 |
| 1992 | 39 | #3,006 | 0.02 |
| 1991 | 30 | #3,590 | 0.02 |
| 1990 | 19 | #4,978 | 0.01 |
| 1989 | 24 | #4,071 | 0.01 |
| 1988 | 30 | #3,268 | 0.02 |
| 1987 | 25 | #3,583 | 0.01 |
| 1986 | 14 | #5,347 | 0.01 |
| 1985 | 13 | #5,550 | 0.01 |
| 1984 | 21 | #3,816 | 0.01 |
| 1983 | 23 | #3,499 | 0.01 |
| 1982 | 23 | #3,600 | 0.01 |
| 1981 | 15 | #4,859 | 0.01 |
| 1980 | 19 | #4,084 | 0.01 |
| 1979 | 19 | #3,985 | 0.01 |
| 1978 | 15 | #4,580 | 0.01 |
| 1977 | 13 | #5,104 | 0.01 |
| 1976 | 10 | #5,848 | 0.01 |
| 1975 | 11 | #5,361 | 0.01 |
| 1973 | 5 | #9,208 | under 0.01 |
| 1972 | 5 | #9,056 | under 0.01 |
| 1971 | 5 | #9,068 | under 0.01 |
| 1968 | 9 | #5,003 | 0.01 |
| 1967 | 6 | #6,492 | under 0.01 |
| 1965 | 5 | #7,136 | under 0.01 |
| 1963 | 9 | #4,750 | under 0.01 |
| 1957 | 9 | #4,419 | under 0.01 |
| 1956 | 6 | #5,701 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Maleah a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Maleah has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 60 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Maleah: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Maleah, and how old are they?
9,330 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 9,426 Americans ever recorded as Maleah. The median Maleah alive today is 15 years old; half are between 9 and 20.
The 2020 Census counted 6,718 people named Maleah (6,702 women and girls, 16 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 7,943 born in the U.S. The Census count is 15% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 20 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 115 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 464 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 4,550 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 4,190 |
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 Maleah born?
The states with the most babies named Maleah are Texas, Florida and Pennsylvania, with 45% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 26 | #1,081 | 0.6× |
| Florida | 18 | #903 | 1.0× |
| Pennsylvania | 15 | #674 | 0.8× |
| Georgia | 13 | #782 | 1.2× |
| California | 11 | #1,903 | 0.7× |
| North Carolina | 10 | #954 | 1.0× |
| Ohio | 7 | #1,229 | 1.2× |
| New York | 7 | #1,768 | 0.5× |
| Michigan | 7 | #1,026 | 0.9× |
| Alabama | 7 | #687 | 1.8× |
Where Maleah is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Maleah is most over-represented in Alabama: since 1956 it was given 1.8 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 Maleah 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 70,577 babies since 1880, Maleah is the third most given (13% of them). In 2025 it was given to 187 of their 1,961 babies (9.5%), the fourth 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 Maleah
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 Maleah and names like it
- Compare Maleah and MaliaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sMaleah peaked in 2009.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Maleah since 1910.
- The top names of 2009The year the most babies were named Maleah.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Maleah alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with MMost given first.