Malena
Malena was given to 81 girls in 2025, #2,271 among girls’ names; 4,058 Americans have been recorded with it since 1886 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 3,950 Americans named Malena and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 21 years old and half are between 13 and 33.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Malena by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Malena mean?
Wiktionary, Spanish section
Malena is “a female given name”
From Magdalena or from María Elena.
Meaning: Wiktionary, Spanish section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Malena?
#2,271 among girls’ names, 2025
Malena fell from #1,992 in 2015 to #2,271 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 56.0 to 50.4 per million.
146 babies in 2004, the peak
Malena peaked in 2004, when 146 girls were given it, #1,423 among girls’ names. The 81 births of 2025 are 55% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 81 | #2,271 | 50.4 |
| 2024 | 73 | #2,479 | 45.1 |
| 2023 | 70 | #2,547 | 43.6 |
| 2022 | 78 | #2,381 | 47.6 |
| 2021 | 75 | #2,407 | 45.7 |
| 2020 | 59 | #2,810 | 36.5 |
| 2019 | 88 | #2,137 | 52.4 |
| 2018 | 81 | #2,265 | 47.6 |
| 2017 | 89 | #2,154 | 51.6 |
| 2016 | 82 | #2,317 | 46.3 |
Every recorded year (76)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 100 | #1,992 | 56.0 |
| 2014 | 110 | #1,848 | 61.6 |
| 2013 | 95 | #2,046 | 54.1 |
| 2012 | 98 | #1,993 | 55.6 |
| 2011 | 115 | #1,777 | 65.4 |
| 2010 | 118 | #1,756 | 66.4 |
| 2009 | 123 | #1,773 | 67.0 |
| 2008 | 122 | #1,797 | 64.5 |
| 2007 | 138 | #1,618 | 71.8 |
| 2006 | 130 | #1,637 | 68.4 |
| 2005 | 117 | #1,699 | 63.3 |
| 2004 | 146 | #1,423 | 79.5 |
| 2003 | 107 | #1,767 | 58.6 |
| 2002 | 139 | #1,389 | 77.4 |
| 2001 | 119 | #1,568 | 66.1 |
| 2000 | 93 | #1,844 | 51.2 |
| 1999 | 73 | #2,106 | 41.2 |
| 1998 | 63 | #2,269 | 35.7 |
| 1997 | 58 | #2,317 | 33.3 |
| 1996 | 50 | #2,537 | 28.5 |
| 1995 | 45 | #2,706 | 25.6 |
| 1994 | 40 | #2,968 | 22.4 |
| 1993 | 41 | #2,914 | 22.7 |
| 1992 | 49 | #2,554 | 26.6 |
| 1991 | 42 | #2,812 | 22.4 |
| 1990 | 22 | #4,453 | 11.6 |
| 1989 | 26 | #3,843 | 14.1 |
| 1988 | 25 | #3,758 | 14.0 |
| 1987 | 19 | #4,400 | 10.9 |
| 1986 | 25 | #3,507 | 14.6 |
| 1985 | 31 | #2,980 | 18.0 |
| 1984 | 21 | #3,817 | 12.5 |
| 1983 | 40 | #2,380 | 23.9 |
| 1982 | 30 | #2,991 | 17.7 |
| 1981 | 36 | #2,592 | 21.6 |
| 1980 | 35 | #2,680 | 21.1 |
| 1979 | 35 | #2,605 | 21.8 |
| 1978 | 41 | #2,260 | 26.8 |
| 1977 | 38 | #2,360 | 24.8 |
| 1976 | 29 | #2,699 | 19.8 |
| 1975 | 42 | #2,085 | 28.8 |
| 1974 | 52 | #1,749 | 35.4 |
| 1973 | 43 | #1,929 | 29.5 |
| 1972 | 63 | #1,512 | 41.4 |
| 1971 | 66 | #1,522 | 39.7 |
| 1970 | 53 | #1,731 | 30.3 |
| 1969 | 24 | #2,743 | 14.2 |
| 1968 | 14 | #3,710 | 8.5 |
| 1967 | 17 | #3,158 | 10.3 |
| 1966 | 6 | #6,259 | 3.5 |
| 1965 | 8 | #5,111 | 4.5 |
| 1964 | 8 | #5,275 | 4.2 |
| 1963 | 7 | #5,660 | 3.6 |
| 1962 | 11 | #4,166 | 5.6 |
| 1961 | 10 | #4,418 | 5.0 |
| 1960 | 6 | #6,114 | 3.0 |
| 1958 | 13 | #3,480 | 6.5 |
| 1957 | 10 | #4,094 | 4.9 |
| 1954 | 6 | #5,505 | 3.1 |
| 1953 | 6 | #5,420 | 3.2 |
| 1951 | 5 | #5,896 | 2.8 |
| 1950 | 5 | #5,796 | 2.9 |
| 1936 | 5 | #4,604 | 4.8 |
| 1930 | 6 | #4,355 | 5.3 |
| 1924 | 6 | #4,823 | 4.8 |
| 1886 | 6 | #1,056 | 41.5 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Malena a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Malena has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 76 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Malena: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Malena, and how old are they?
3,950 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 97% of the 4,058 Americans ever recorded as Malena. The median Malena alive today is 21 years old; half are between 13 and 33.
The 2020 Census counted 4,061 people named Malena (4,051 women and girls, 10 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 3,551 born in the U.S. The Census count is 14% 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.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 2 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 71 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 529 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 528 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,740 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,070 |
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 Malena born?
The states with the most babies named Malena are California, Texas and Pennsylvania, with 84% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 11 | #1,904 | 1.1× |
| Texas | 11 | #1,996 | 0.5× |
| Pennsylvania | 9 | #980 | 0.9× |
| Florida | 6 | #2,055 | 0.8× |
Where Malena is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Malena is most over-represented in California: since 1910 it was given 1.1 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 Malena 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 21,305 babies since 1880, Malena is the third most given (19% of them). In 2025 it was given to 81 of their 1,133 babies (7.1%), 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 Malena
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 Malena and names like it
- Compare Malena and MalaniBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sMalena peaked in 2004.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Malena since 1910.
- Spanish namesWiktionary’s origin for Malena: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2004The year the most babies were named Malena.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Malena alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with MMost given first.