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Maleah

#1,215 in 2025Girls' name

Variant of Malia

Maleah has been given to 9,426 babies in the U.S. since 1956. In 2025 it ranked #1,215 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 2009, with 508 recorded.

Babies named Maleah, 2025

1 in 17,700

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Maleah: meaning, origin, and history

Variant of Malia

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Maleah means

Maleah is a variant of Malia.

Meaning behind the documented name family

The name developed through Maleah → Malia. The family’s meaning is “calm”, recorded in English with the source elements Mālia.

Origin, language, and formation

Maleah is used in English.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Malia.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 9,426 girls were recorded with the name Maleah between 1956 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 508 in 2009; its best national rank was #595 in 2009.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #871 in 2020 to #1,215 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #834 in 2015 to #1,215 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.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Maleah?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 17,700
187 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 8,590
0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#1,215
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
12,289 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Maleah 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 5003%

Put another way: gather 12,289 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Maleah. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Maleahs were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Maleah was born before 2011 — so the typical Maleah is around 14 today.

Median birth year
2011
About 14 years old
Biggest decade
2010s
43.7% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
88.8%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
9,426
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2010s — 43.7% of all recorded uses (4,115).

Is Maleah 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
−4
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
−344
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−381
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.55×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
36.8%
Peak was 2009 (508)
Years since peak
16
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
13.0% average annual change
Best rank ever
#595
2009

Spellings of Maleah

Maleah is not the most common spelling — Leah is, with 45.2% against Maleah's 1.7%.

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 Maleah is used

Across 2016–2025, Maleah was most concentrated in Alabama — about 1 in 2,041 girls, against 1 in 5,065 across all states with data. It was least common in Massachusetts (1 in 50,000).

249 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Alabama1 in 2,041
  2. 2Louisiana1 in 2,222
  3. 3Tennessee1 in 2,703
  4. 4Georgia1 in 2,857
  5. 5Missouri1 in 3,125
  6. 6Mississippi1 in 3,226
  7. 7Michigan1 in 3,448
  8. 8Indiana1 in 3,571

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, Maleah is somewhat regional — more concentrated than 60% of the names used widely enough to compare. See the most regional names

Maleah around the world

Where Maleah 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
    2004–2025
    #4,201
    in 2025
  • Canada
    2003–2024
    #2,463
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1986–2012
    #871
    in 2012

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

Maleah by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#1,215
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 344
Best rank ever
#595
2009
Peak year
2009
508 that year
First recorded
1956
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
9,426
Count in 2025
187

Names similar to Maleah

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

MalayaMalaniMaliahMalikaMalinaMalissaMalenaMallieMalkaMaliyahMaliyaMalayahMalindaMalorieMalakMalaysiaNeveahMaleeahMalihaMaloryMaliaKaleahMalkyMalaika

Names with a curve like Maleah

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

MiahSariahMadalynnJayleeJazlynnLiliannaJaelynnAmiyaJayleneJayceeAmelieNathaly

Sibling names for Maleah

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 Maleah

Top names of 2009, Maleah's peak yearThe 2000s in fullOther names that peaked in 2009Girls' names starting with M