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Malaya

#775 in 2025Girls' name

Meaning and linguistic origin unconfirmed

Malaya has been given to 8,467 babies in the U.S. since 1977. In 2025 it ranked #775 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 2014, with 449 recorded.

Babies named Malaya, 2025

1 in 9,440

Malaya over time, 1880–2025

Girls
020040060018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Malaya: meaning, origin, and history

Meaning and linguistic origin unconfirmed

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Malaya means

Malaya is a given name.

The naming story behind Malaya

Wikidata records Malaya as a female given name. The entity identifier is Q56407679, and the classification was checked on 2026-10-20. The spelling matches a source label or alias exactly, without removing accents or linking it to a name merely because the letters look similar.

A database classification is different from an etymological explanation, so those questions remain open in the short meaning.

A modern root explanation needs an additional naming or linguistic reference.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 8,467 girls were recorded with the name Malaya between 1977 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 449 in 2014; its best national rank was #633 in 2013.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #667 in 2020 to #775 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #726 in 2015 to #775 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 Malaya?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 9,440
351 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 4,580
0.02% of girls
Rank, 2025
#775
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
6,548 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Malaya 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 1001%
School of 5005%

Put another way: gather 6,548 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Malaya. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Malayas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Malaya was born before 2015 — so the typical Malaya is around 10 today.

Median birth year
2015
About 10 years old
Biggest decade
2010s
46.1% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
95.7%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
8,467
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2010s — 46.1% of all recorded uses (3,907).

Is Malaya 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
+38
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
−108
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−49
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.90×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
78.2%
Peak was 2014 (449)
Years since peak
11
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
12.8% average annual change
Best rank ever
#633
2013

Spellings of Malaya

Malaya is not the most common spelling — Maya is, with 18.0% against Malaya'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 Malaya is used

Across 2016–2025, Malaya was most concentrated in South Carolina — about 1 in 1,429 girls, against 1 in 3,550 across all states with data. It was least common in Utah (1 in 33,333).

370 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1South Carolina1 in 1,429
  2. 2Louisiana1 in 1,639
  3. 3Georgia1 in 1,961
  4. 4Michigan1 in 1,961
  5. 5New Mexico1 in 1,961
  6. 6Mississippi1 in 2,000
  7. 7Tennessee1 in 2,500
  8. 8North Carolina1 in 2,564

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.

Geographically, Malaya is somewhat regional — more concentrated than 55% of the names used widely enough to compare. See the most regional names

Malaya around the world

Where Malaya 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
    2008–2025
    #1,719
    in 2025
  • France
    2021–2025
    #5,817
    in 2025
  • Canada
    2002–2024
    #1,542
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    2005–2009
    #818
    in 2009

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Malaya by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#775
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 108
Best rank ever
#633
2013
Peak year
2014
449 that year
First recorded
1977
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
8,467
Count in 2025
351

Names similar to Malaya

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

MaleahMalaniMaliahMalikaMalinaMalenaMalissaMallieMalkaMaliyaMaliyahMalayahSorayaMalorieMalakMalindaMalaysiaMalihaMaloryMalkyMalaikaMalanaMaleaMaleia

Names with a curve like Malaya

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

ZaniyahAlianaKarsynRayneAyleenMilanYamilethMadilynnLiliannaAveriLeylaSiena

Sibling names for Malaya

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 Malaya

Top names of 2014, Malaya's peak yearThe 2010s in fullOther names that peaked in 2013Girls' names starting with M