Maliah
Feminine
Maliah joins the Mal- front to the -iah ending, and the sound sits between the Hawaiian Malia, which is Mary, and the American -iah pattern.
How old is the name Maliah?
Maliah first appears in US birth records in 1991 — 34 years ago. The typical Maliah is a kid of about 11 — this name's wave is very recent. About 5,400 people named Maliah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Maliah most popular?
Maliah peaked in 2013, reaching #784 nationally. Today it ranks #1684, 900 places below that high. See the whole 2013 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Maria to Maliah
The story of Maliah
Malia is the Hawaiian form of Mary, brought by missionaries in the nineteenth century and thoroughly naturalized. Separately, the -iah ending spread through American naming from the 1990s. Maliah appears in the American registers in the 2000s, carried from both directions, and is in current use.
Meaningscholars disagree
Not established
The likeliest inherited route is the Hawaiian Malia, the form of Mary, whose own origin is unrecovered. A second reading treats Maliah as an American coinage on the -iah ending, alongside Aaliyah and Amariah. Neither is documented for this exact spelling.
How the name formed
- Maria
- Malia
- Maliah
Related forms: Malia · Malia · Malia
Pronouncing Maliah
muh-LY-uh
Three syllables, stress in the middle. Hawaiian Malia is mah-LEE-ah with a different middle vowel.
Nicknames for Maliah
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1991
- Most girls named
- 2009356 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #784reached in 2013
- Change vs 2024
- −0.8%122 in 2025, from 123
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Maliah in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Malia in Hawaiian — related form
- Malia in English — spelling variant
- Malia in Samoan — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Maliahs among us
people named Maliah are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 13,174 born in 2025 was named Maliah
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Maliah
- #1684
- Maliah on the 2025 chart
- #214
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Maliah went to 122 girls in 2025, but Malia, Maliyah and Maliya and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 7 spellings went to 1,534, which makes it the 214th most-given girls’ name of the year — 1,470 places above the chart.
and 2 rarer spellings.
About 1 girl in 1,048 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 13,174 for Maliah itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Afton test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Maliah's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Afton climbed just as high around 1917, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Afton's path sketches the road Maliah is walking now.
Maliah sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Maliah is headed
Maliah is easing off slowly — about 25% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Maliah beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Maliah in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The Hawaiian Malia behind it is a genuine and naturalized form of Mary.
- Mali and Lia are two short forms, both with real use.
- Three syllables of open vowels, which carries unusually well.
- The middle vowel differs between the Hawaiian and American readings.
- Malia is the standard Hawaiian spelling and is far commoner.
- Several spellings of the sound are in circulation.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Maliah
Feminine · #1684 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Maliahs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 5,400 people named Maliah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Maliah?
- Maliah is one of 5 recorded spellings. Malia is the more common one — 872 births in 2025 against 122 for Maliah.
- How popular is the name Maliah in 2025?
- Maliah ranks #1684 among US girl names in 2025, with 122 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Maliah?
- About 1 in every 13,174 US girls born in 2025 was named Maliah — 122 in all.
- Will my child share the name Maliah with classmates?
- Maliah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Maliah
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Aadya#1684 · Janae#1684 · Francis#1684 · Soleia#1684 · Jamila#1684 · Milah#1684 · Nechama#1684 · Tahlia#1692
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Maliah? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Maliah and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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