Maylani
Feminine · “heavenly”
Maylani joins May to the Hawaiian -lani, the sky — a genuine Hawaiian ending on an English front.
How old is the name Maylani?
Maylani first appears in US birth records in 2001 — 24 years ago. The typical Maylani is a kid of about 6 — this name's wave is very recent. About 1,000 people named Maylani are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Maylani most popular?
Maylani peaked in 2025, reaching #1990 nationally. Today it ranks #1990, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From lani to Maylani
Our story of Maylani
Our story of Maylani is a story of an ending that traveled and a front that did not. Hawaiian gave American naming -lani through Leilani and Kailani, and families outside the tradition began attaching their own fronts — Maylani, Kaelani, Ahlani, Dalani. May is English, from the month or from Mary. The back half means exactly what it says in a living language; the front does not come from it, and Maylani appears in the registers only in the 2010s.
Meaningscholars disagree
heavenly
The lani element is genuine Hawaiian for 'sky', 'heaven' or 'royal', and closes many real names. The May- front is English and is not documented in Hawaiian. The compound is half genuine and half modern American, which is worth stating rather than smoothing over.
How the name formed
- lani
- Maylani
Related forms: Leilani · Maelani · Kailani
Pronouncing Maylani
may-LAH-nee
Three syllables, stress in the middle. Hawaiian gives every vowel a full value with no reduction.
Nicknames for Maylani
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
- 2001
- Most girls named
- 202596 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1990reached in 2025
- Change vs 2024
- +5.5%96 in 2025, from 91
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.
Maylani in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Leilani in Hawaiian — related form
- Maelani in English — spelling variant
- Kailani in Hawaiian — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Maylanis among us
people named Maylani are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 16,742 born in 2025 was named Maylani
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Maylani
- #1990
- Maylani on the 2025 chart
- #752
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Maylani went to 96 girls in 2025, but Mailani, Mailany and Mailanni are the same name said out loud. Together the 4 spellings went to 209, which makes it the 752nd most-given girls’ name of the year — 1,238 places above the chart.
- Maylani96
- Mailani85
- Mailany23
- Mailanni5
About 1 girl in 7,690 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 16,742 for Maylani 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 Tamarah test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Maylani's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Tamarah climbed just as high around 1962, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Tamarah's path sketches the road Maylani is walking now.
Maylani is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Maylani is headed
Maylani should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind. Its history is short or jumpy, though, so read this as a sketch rather than a promise.
Low 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.
Maylani beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Maylani in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The lani ending is genuinely Hawaiian and its meaning is undisputed.
- May and Lani are two short forms, both real names in their own right.
- Three syllables of open vowels, which carries unusually well.
- It is not a traditional Hawaiian name and the front is not from that language.
- Melani and Melanie are close enough to cause constant confusion.
- It is very new in American records.
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What they receive
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Maylani
Feminine · #1990 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Maylanis are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,000 people named Maylani are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Maylani?
- Maylani is the most-used spelling in US records — 96 of the 209 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Mailani, Mailany and Mailanni.
- How popular is the name Maylani in 2025?
- Maylani ranks #1990 among US girl names in 2025, with 96 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Maylani?
- About 1 in every 16,742 US girls born in 2025 was named Maylani — 96 in all.
- Will my child share the name Maylani with classmates?
- Maylani will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Maylani
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Emrie#1990 · Gema#1990 · Venus#1990 · Cambria#1990 · Arayah#1990 · Kristen#1990 · Fiadh#1990 · Caliyah#1990
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Maylani? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Maylani and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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