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Malena

#2,271 in 2025Girls' name

Form of Magdalena

Malena has been given to 4,058 babies in the U.S. since 1886. In 2025 it ranked #2,271 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 2004, with 146 recorded.

Babies named Malena, 2025

1 in 40,900

Malena over time, 1880–2025

Girls
05010015018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Malena: meaning, origin, and history

Form of Magdalena

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Malena means

Malena is a form of Magdalena.

Meaning behind the documented name family

The name developed through Malena → Magdalena → Magdalena. The family’s meaning is “woman from Magdala”, recorded in Spanish with the source elements Magdalēnḗ.

Origin, language, and formation

Malena is used in Faroese and Spanish.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Magdalena.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 4,058 girls were recorded with the name Malena between 1886 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 146 in 2004; its best national rank was #1,056 in 1886.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #2,810 in 2020 to #2,271 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #1,992 in 2015 to #2,271 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 Malena?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 40,900
81 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 19,800
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#2,271
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
28,370 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Malena 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 5001%

Put another way: gather 28,370 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Malena. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Malenas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Malena was born before 2005 — so the typical Malena is around 20 today.

Median birth year
2005
About 20 years old
Biggest decade
2000s
30.4% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
62.9%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
4,035
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2000s — 30.4% of all recorded uses (1,234).

Is Malena 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
+208
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
+539
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
−279
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.81×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
55.5%
Peak was 2004 (146)
Years since peak
21
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Steady
10.6% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,056
1886

Spellings of Malena

Malena is not the most common spelling — Lena is, with 12.2% against Malena's 0.34%.

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 Malena is used

Across 2016–2025, Malena was most concentrated in Pennsylvania — about 1 in 6,667 girls, against 1 in 20,563 across all states with data. It was least common in Georgia (1 in 100,000).

115 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Pennsylvania1 in 6,667
  2. 2California1 in 16,667
  3. 3Ohio1 in 20,000
  4. 4Florida1 in 25,000
  5. 5Texas1 in 25,000
  6. 6Arizona1 in 33,333
  7. 7Maryland1 in 50,000
  8. 8New York1 in 50,000

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.

Malena around the world

Where Malena 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
    2003–2025
    #4,201
    in 2025
  • Ireland
    2007–2007
    #842
    in 2007
  • France
    1992–2025
    #2,586
    in 2025
  • Norway
    1880–2024
    #446
    in 2024
  • Canada
    1998–2024
    #3,027
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1981–2007
    #803
    in 2007

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

Notable people named Malena

People whose public names include Malena, 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.

Malena in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Malena. Linked forms have their own page here.

MaleneMalinaMadelaineMagdalena

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Malena by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#2,271
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 539
Best rank ever
#1,056
1886
Peak year
2004
146 that year
First recorded
1886
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
4,058
Count in 2025
81

Names similar to Malena

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

MaleenaMalinaMallieMalikaMaliahMaliyaMalaniMalayaMalorieMalakMalayahMaleahMalihaMaloryMalkyMalaikaMalanaMaleaMalkaMaleiaKarenaCelenaMaleniSirena

Names with a curve like Malena

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

MeliaAnjaRiaAnessaMadelinSamiaZaidaKerenTalyaSabineRianDalila

Sibling names for Malena

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 Malena

Top names of 2004, Malena's peak yearThe 2000s in fullOther names that peaked in 1886Girls' names starting with M