Nala
Nala was given to 317 girls in 2025, #856 among girls’ names; 6,138 Americans have been recorded with it since 1979 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 6,090 Americans named Nala and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 9 years old and half are between 5 and 14.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Nala by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Nala?
#856 among girls’ names, 2025
Nala rose from #950 in 2015 to #856 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 0.16 to 0.20 per 1,000.
428 babies in 2019, the peak
Nala peaked in 2019, when 428 girls were given it, #679 among girls’ names. The 317 births of 2025 are 74% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 317 | #856 | 0.20 |
| 2024 | 375 | #753 | 0.23 |
| 2023 | 320 | #846 | 0.20 |
| 2022 | 351 | #804 | 0.21 |
| 2021 | 385 | #741 | 0.23 |
| 2020 | 406 | #695 | 0.25 |
| 2019 | 428 | #679 | 0.26 |
| 2018 | 374 | #742 | 0.22 |
| 2017 | 362 | #766 | 0.21 |
| 2016 | 365 | #777 | 0.21 |
Every recorded year (33)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 286 | #950 | 0.16 |
| 2014 | 267 | #994 | 0.15 |
| 2013 | 234 | #1,066 | 0.13 |
| 2012 | 238 | #1,059 | 0.14 |
| 2011 | 158 | #1,438 | 0.09 |
| 2010 | 125 | #1,692 | 0.07 |
| 2009 | 111 | #1,899 | 0.06 |
| 2008 | 119 | #1,820 | 0.06 |
| 2007 | 92 | #2,172 | 0.05 |
| 2006 | 102 | #1,972 | 0.05 |
| 2005 | 71 | #2,474 | 0.04 |
| 2004 | 94 | #1,983 | 0.05 |
| 2003 | 78 | #2,219 | 0.04 |
| 2002 | 48 | #3,048 | 0.03 |
| 2001 | 56 | #2,683 | 0.03 |
| 2000 | 51 | #2,844 | 0.03 |
| 1999 | 51 | #2,722 | 0.03 |
| 1998 | 54 | #2,553 | 0.03 |
| 1997 | 55 | #2,415 | 0.03 |
| 1996 | 51 | #2,495 | 0.03 |
| 1995 | 85 | #1,720 | 0.05 |
| 1994 | 24 | #4,335 | 0.01 |
| 1979 | 5 | #11,342 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Nala a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Nala has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 33 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Nala: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Nala, and how old are they?
6,090 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 6,138 Americans ever recorded as Nala. The median Nala alive today is 9 years old; half are between 5 and 14.
The 2020 Census counted 3,507 people named Nala (3,485 women and girls, 22 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 4,058 born in the U.S. The Census count is 14% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 5 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 157 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,490 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 4,440 |
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 Nala born?
The states with the most babies named Nala are Texas, California and Florida, with 37% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 38 | #796 | 0.7× |
| California | 31 | #931 | 0.7× |
| Florida | 27 | #646 | 1.2× |
| Georgia | 19 | #575 | 1.5× |
| New York | 17 | #936 | 1.1× |
| North Carolina | 13 | #763 | 1.3× |
| Illinois | 13 | #735 | 0.9× |
| Ohio | 13 | #734 | 0.9× |
| Virginia | 11 | #693 | 0.8× |
| Michigan | 10 | #770 | 0.9× |
Where Nala is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Nala is most over-represented in Georgia: since 1979 it was given 1.5 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 Nala 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 24,352 babies since 1880, Nala is the most given (25% of them). In 2025 it was given to 317 of their 1,038 babies (31%), again the 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 Nala
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 Nala and names like it
- Compare Nala and NailahBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sNala peaked in 2019.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Nala since 1910.
- The top names of 2019The year the most babies were named Nala.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Nala alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with NMost given first.