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Mahala

#7,357 in 2025Girls' name

Variant of Mahalah

Mahala has been given to 2,889 babies in the U.S. since 1880. In 2025 it ranked #7,357 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 2006, with 74 recorded.

Babies named Mahala, 2025

1 in 221,000

Mahala over time, 1880–2025

Girls
02040608018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Mahala: meaning, origin, and history

Variant of Mahalah

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Mahala means

Mahala is a variant of Mahalah.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Mahalah.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 2,889 girls were recorded with the name Mahala between 1880 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 74 in 2006; its best national rank was #355 in 1882.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #5,416 in 2020 to #7,357 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #5,060 in 2015 to #7,357 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

How common is Mahala?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 221,000
15 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 107,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#7,357
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
153,194 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Mahala sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 153,194 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Mahala. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Mahalas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Mahala was born before 1987 — so the typical Mahala is around 38 today.

Median birth year
1987
About 38 years old
Biggest decade
2000s
21.7% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
34.8%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
1,802
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2000s — 21.7% of all recorded uses (627).

Is Mahala rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
−2,122
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
−1,941
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−2,297
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.56×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
20.3%
Peak was 2006 (74)
Years since peak
19
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
18.1% average annual change
Best rank ever
#355
1882

Spellings of Mahala

Mahala is not the most common spelling — Makayla is, with 44.0% against Mahala's 1.2%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Mahala is used

Across 1910–2025, Mahala was most concentrated in Kentucky — about 1 in 33,333 girls, against 1 in 212,704 across all states with data. It was least common in West Virginia (1 in —).

03 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Kentucky1 in 33,333
  2. 2North Carolina1 in 100,000
  3. 3Ohio1 in 100,000
  4. 4Arkansas1 in —
  5. 5California1 in —
  6. 6Florida1 in —
  7. 7Indiana1 in —
  8. 8Missouri1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Mahala has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Mahala around the world

Where Mahala ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    2002–2022
    #4,646
    in 2022
  • South Australia
    1971–2013
    #536
    in 2013

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Notable people named Mahala

People whose public names include Mahala, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Mahala by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#7,357
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 1,941
Best rank ever
#355
1882
Peak year
2006
74 that year
First recorded
1880
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
2,889
Count in 2025
15

Names similar to Mahala

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

MahaliaMahiraMahinaMaheenMahliaMahikaMahimaMahnoorMahaMahoganyMahaylaMahariKamalaMahiTamalaMahlaniMakalaMikalaMahsaAyalaMahamMahathiTalaMahiya

Names with a curve like Mahala

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Mahala, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

EmelieDaiseyNevadaZadaPhebeNanaAllenaMaryannaSenaDelilaLovinaMadelyne

Sibling names for Mahala

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Mahala

Top names of 2006, Mahala's peak yearThe 2000s in fullOther names that peaked in 1882Girls' names starting with M