Maliyah
Maliyah was given to 467 girls in 2025, #626 among girls’ names; 15,359 Americans have been recorded with it since 1994 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 15,200 Americans named Maliyah and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 12 years old and half are between 7 and 17.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Maliyah by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Maliyah mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Maliyah is “a female given name from Hawaiian.”
Probably a fanciful spelling of Malia, from Hawaiian Malia.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Maliyah?
#626 among girls’ names, 2025
Maliyah fell from #435 in 2015 to #626 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 0.41 to 0.29 per 1,000.
1,117 babies in 2009, the peak
Maliyah peaked in 2009, when 1,117 girls were given it, #297 among girls’ names. The 467 births of 2025 are 42% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 467 | #626 | 0.29 |
| 2024 | 515 | #588 | 0.32 |
| 2023 | 572 | #531 | 0.36 |
| 2022 | 595 | #524 | 0.36 |
| 2021 | 586 | #527 | 0.36 |
| 2020 | 665 | #464 | 0.41 |
| 2019 | 766 | #408 | 0.46 |
| 2018 | 740 | #422 | 0.44 |
| 2017 | 790 | #395 | 0.46 |
| 2016 | 758 | #429 | 0.43 |
Every recorded year (32)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 728 | #435 | 0.41 |
| 2014 | 735 | #436 | 0.41 |
| 2013 | 799 | #389 | 0.46 |
| 2012 | 823 | #382 | 0.47 |
| 2011 | 912 | #351 | 0.52 |
| 2010 | 890 | #358 | 0.50 |
| 2009 | 1,117 | #297 | 0.61 |
| 2008 | 481 | #640 | 0.25 |
| 2007 | 384 | #763 | 0.20 |
| 2006 | 306 | #872 | 0.16 |
| 2005 | 296 | #855 | 0.16 |
| 2004 | 260 | #929 | 0.14 |
| 2003 | 296 | #827 | 0.16 |
| 2002 | 249 | #901 | 0.14 |
| 2001 | 190 | #1,114 | 0.11 |
| 2000 | 123 | #1,498 | 0.07 |
| 1999 | 87 | #1,839 | 0.05 |
| 1998 | 78 | #1,945 | 0.04 |
| 1997 | 69 | #2,062 | 0.04 |
| 1996 | 37 | #3,194 | 0.02 |
| 1995 | 24 | #4,295 | 0.01 |
| 1994 | 21 | #4,770 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Maliyah a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Maliyah has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 32 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Maliyah: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Maliyah, and how old are they?
15,200 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 15,359 Americans ever recorded as Maliyah. The median Maliyah alive today is 12 years old; half are between 7 and 17.
The 2020 Census counted 8,935 people named Maliyah (8,911 women and girls, 24 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 12,043 born in the U.S. The Census count is 26% 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 | 81 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 6,500 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 8,660 |
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 Maliyah born?
The states with the most babies named Maliyah are Texas, California and Florida, with 28% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 51 | #621 | 0.8× |
| California | 40 | #772 | 0.8× |
| Florida | 32 | #565 | 1.3× |
| Georgia | 26 | #442 | 1.5× |
| North Carolina | 24 | #466 | 1.2× |
| New York | 23 | #720 | 0.7× |
| Ohio | 22 | #499 | 1.1× |
| Maryland | 20 | #263 | 1.2× |
| Pennsylvania | 19 | #573 | 0.9× |
| Virginia | 18 | #453 | 1.1× |
Where Maliyah is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Maliyah is most over-represented in Mississippi: since 1994 it was given 2.0 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 Maliyah 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 78,583 babies since 1880, Maliyah is the second most given (20% of them). In 2025 it was given to 467 of their 2,299 babies (20%), again the second 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 Maliyah
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 Maliyah and names like it
- Compare Maliyah and MaliaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sMaliyah peaked in 2009.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Maliyah since 1910.
- Hawaiian namesWiktionary’s origin for Maliyah: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2009The year the most babies were named Maliyah.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Maliyah alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with MMost given first.