Meliha
Meliha was last recorded in 2023, when 6 babies were given it; 83 Americans have been recorded with it between 2001 and 2023 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Meliha by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Meliha mean?
Wiktionary, Turkish section
Meliha is “a female given name from Arabic” Its etymology gives the sense “beautiful, graceful, elegant” (مَلِيحَة).
Inherited from Ottoman Turkish ملیحه (meliha), from Arabic مَلِيحَة (malīḥa, “beautiful, graceful, elegant”). Analyzable as feminine form of Melih.
Meaning: Wiktionary, Turkish section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Meliha?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #14,578, in 2023; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
10 babies in 2020, the peak
Meliha peaked in 2020, when 10 girls were given it, #10,022 among girls’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 6 | #14,578 | 3.7 |
| 2021 | 6 | #14,662 | 3.7 |
| 2020 | 10 | #10,022 | 6.2 |
| 2019 | 8 | #12,065 | 4.8 |
| 2018 | 6 | #15,029 | 3.5 |
| 2017 | 6 | #15,317 | 3.5 |
| 2016 | 5 | #17,968 | 2.8 |
| 2011 | 6 | #16,120 | 3.4 |
| 2010 | 5 | #18,908 | 2.8 |
| 2009 | 5 | #19,224 | 2.7 |
Every recorded year (13)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 5 | #19,484 | 2.6 |
| 2007 | 9 | #12,324 | 4.7 |
| 2001 | 6 | #14,720 | 3.3 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Meliha a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Meliha has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 13 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Meliha: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Meliha, and how old are they?
An estimated 82 Americans named Meliha and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026, too few to state an age range. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 378 people named Meliha (376 women and girls, 2 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 63 born in the U.S. The Census count is 6.0 times 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
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. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Meliha
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.