Maleka
Maleka was given to 5 girls in 2025, #16,382 among girls’ names; 403 Americans have been recorded with it since 1970 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Maleka by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Maleka mean?
Wiktionary, Hawaiian section
Maleka is “a female given name originating from the Bible, vernacular form of the biblical Mareta (“Martha”)”
/maˈle.ka/
Meaning: Wiktionary, Hawaiian section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Maleka?
#16,382 among girls’ names, 2025
Maleka fell from #15,691 in 2015 to #16,382 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 3.4 to 3.1 per million.
23 babies in 1980, the peak
Maleka peaked in 1980, when 23 girls were given it, #3,570 among girls’ names. The 5 births of 2025 are 22% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 5 | #16,382 | 3.1 |
| 2021 | 7 | #12,995 | 4.3 |
| 2019 | 6 | #14,919 | 3.6 |
| 2017 | 6 | #15,254 | 3.5 |
| 2015 | 6 | #15,691 | 3.4 |
| 2005 | 7 | #13,927 | 3.8 |
| 2003 | 7 | #13,301 | 3.8 |
| 2002 | 10 | #9,975 | 5.6 |
| 2001 | 6 | #14,643 | 3.3 |
| 2000 | 13 | #7,852 | 7.2 |
Every recorded year (38)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | 16 | #6,371 | 9.0 |
| 1998 | 5 | #15,608 | 2.8 |
| 1997 | 16 | #6,054 | 9.2 |
| 1996 | 12 | #7,401 | 6.8 |
| 1995 | 14 | #6,478 | 8.0 |
| 1994 | 12 | #7,407 | 6.7 |
| 1993 | 17 | #5,583 | 9.4 |
| 1992 | 17 | #5,618 | 9.2 |
| 1991 | 11 | #7,742 | 5.9 |
| 1990 | 13 | #6,706 | 6.8 |
| 1989 | 11 | #7,258 | 6.0 |
| 1988 | 16 | #5,213 | 9.0 |
| 1987 | 13 | #5,794 | 7.5 |
| 1986 | 8 | #8,183 | 4.7 |
| 1985 | 9 | #7,311 | 5.2 |
| 1984 | 8 | #7,841 | 4.8 |
| 1983 | 10 | #6,499 | 6.0 |
| 1981 | 8 | #7,838 | 4.8 |
| 1980 | 23 | #3,570 | 13.9 |
| 1979 | 12 | #5,614 | 7.5 |
| 1978 | 15 | #4,581 | 9.8 |
| 1977 | 14 | #4,813 | 9.1 |
| 1976 | 10 | #5,849 | 6.8 |
| 1975 | 12 | #5,026 | 8.2 |
| 1974 | 9 | #6,033 | 6.1 |
| 1972 | 5 | #9,057 | 3.3 |
| 1971 | 9 | #5,816 | 5.4 |
| 1970 | 5 | #8,779 | 2.9 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Maleka a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Maleka has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 38 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Maleka: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Maleka, and how old are they?
An estimated 391 Americans named Maleka and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 36 years old and half are between 29 and 46. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 540 people named Maleka (538 women and girls, 2 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 382 born in the U.S. The Census count is 41% above that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
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 18,899 babies since 1880, Maleka is the sixth most given (2.1% of them). In 2025 it was given to 5 of their 547 babies (<1%), again the sixth 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 Maleka
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 Maleka and names like it
- Compare Maleka and MalkaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1980sMaleka peaked in 1980.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Maleka since 1910.
- The top names of 1980The year the most babies were named Maleka.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Maleka alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with MMost given first.