Malika
Malika was given to 64 girls in 2025, #2,711 among girls’ names; 5,003 Americans have been recorded with it since 1966 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 4,880 Americans named Malika and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 30 years old and half are between 18 and 41.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Malika by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Malika mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Malika is “a female given name from Arabic, the female version of the title Malik (“King” in Arabic).” Its etymology gives the sense “queen” (مَلِكَة).
Borrowed from Arabic مَلِكَة (malika, “queen”).
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Malika?
#2,711 among girls’ names, 2025
Malika rose from #3,113 in 2015 to #2,711 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 30.3 to 39.8 per million.
183 babies in 1996, the peak
Malika peaked in 1996, when 183 girls were given it, #1,024 among girls’ names. The 64 births of 2025 are 35% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 64 | #2,711 | 0.04 |
| 2024 | 59 | #2,844 | 0.04 |
| 2023 | 88 | #2,167 | 0.05 |
| 2022 | 82 | #2,290 | 0.05 |
| 2021 | 78 | #2,337 | 0.05 |
| 2020 | 88 | #2,091 | 0.05 |
| 2019 | 89 | #2,124 | 0.05 |
| 2018 | 80 | #2,290 | 0.05 |
| 2017 | 84 | #2,250 | 0.05 |
| 2016 | 86 | #2,240 | 0.05 |
Every recorded year (59)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 54 | #3,113 | 0.03 |
| 2014 | 80 | #2,318 | 0.04 |
| 2013 | 61 | #2,828 | 0.03 |
| 2012 | 81 | #2,330 | 0.05 |
| 2011 | 62 | #2,824 | 0.04 |
| 2010 | 52 | #3,187 | 0.03 |
| 2009 | 38 | #4,069 | 0.02 |
| 2008 | 58 | #3,010 | 0.03 |
| 2007 | 65 | #2,811 | 0.03 |
| 2006 | 57 | #3,005 | 0.03 |
| 2005 | 59 | #2,807 | 0.03 |
| 2004 | 71 | #2,413 | 0.04 |
| 2003 | 94 | #1,940 | 0.05 |
| 2002 | 84 | #2,054 | 0.05 |
| 2001 | 107 | #1,691 | 0.06 |
| 2000 | 107 | #1,653 | 0.06 |
| 1999 | 111 | #1,532 | 0.06 |
| 1998 | 109 | #1,537 | 0.06 |
| 1997 | 131 | #1,321 | 0.08 |
| 1996 | 183 | #1,024 | 0.10 |
| 1995 | 149 | #1,163 | 0.08 |
| 1994 | 145 | #1,210 | 0.08 |
| 1993 | 154 | #1,152 | 0.09 |
| 1992 | 149 | #1,178 | 0.08 |
| 1991 | 120 | #1,361 | 0.06 |
| 1990 | 126 | #1,291 | 0.07 |
| 1989 | 80 | #1,706 | 0.04 |
| 1988 | 80 | #1,627 | 0.04 |
| 1987 | 101 | #1,354 | 0.06 |
| 1986 | 73 | #1,632 | 0.04 |
| 1985 | 65 | #1,749 | 0.04 |
| 1984 | 75 | #1,524 | 0.04 |
| 1983 | 76 | #1,502 | 0.05 |
| 1982 | 73 | #1,604 | 0.04 |
| 1981 | 100 | #1,281 | 0.06 |
| 1980 | 90 | #1,385 | 0.05 |
| 1979 | 94 | #1,327 | 0.06 |
| 1978 | 117 | #1,115 | 0.08 |
| 1977 | 95 | #1,260 | 0.06 |
| 1976 | 92 | #1,230 | 0.06 |
| 1975 | 115 | #1,042 | 0.08 |
| 1974 | 106 | #1,099 | 0.07 |
| 1973 | 58 | #1,600 | 0.04 |
| 1972 | 60 | #1,553 | 0.04 |
| 1971 | 43 | #1,989 | 0.03 |
| 1970 | 39 | #2,103 | 0.02 |
| 1969 | 19 | #3,160 | 0.01 |
| 1967 | 5 | #7,422 | under 0.01 |
| 1966 | 6 | #6,261 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Malika a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Malika has been given almost only to girls: 36 boys in 59 years of records.
Girls and boys named Malika: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Malika, and how old are they?
4,880 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 5,003 Americans ever recorded as Malika. The median Malika alive today is 30 years old; half are between 18 and 41.
The 2020 Census counted 5,656 people named Malika (5,533 women and girls, 123 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 4,478 born in the U.S. The Census count is 26% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 890 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 1,710 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,300 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 987 |
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 Malika born?
The states with the most babies named Malika are New York, California and Pennsylvania, with 100% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 8 | #1,608 | 2.3× |
| California | 6 | #2,978 | 0.7× |
| Pennsylvania | 6 | #1,335 | 1.7× |
Where Malika is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Malika is most over-represented in New York: since 1966 it was given 2.3 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 Malika 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 18,899 babies since 1880, Malika is the second most given (26% of them). In 2025 it was given to 64 of their 547 babies (12%), 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 Malika
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 Malika and names like it
- Compare Malika and MalkaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sMalika peaked in 1996.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Malika since 1910.
- Arabic namesWiktionary’s origin for Malika: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1996The year the most babies were named Malika.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Malika alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with MMost given first.