Nala
Feminine · “In Sanskrit”
Two syllables, four letters, and almost no one hesitates before saying it aloud — Nala carries the open vowels that Swahili, Sanskrit and Spanish all share. Its long life in the record belongs to South Asia, where Nala is the reed-named king of the Mahabharata's most retold love story; its American life owes almost everything to a lioness in a 1994 film. Two very different roads, one small sound.
How old is the name Nala?
Nala first appears in US birth records in 1979 — 46 years ago. The typical Nala is a kid of about 8 — this name's wave is very recent. About 6,100 people named Nala are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Nala most popular?
Nala peaked in 2019, reaching #675 nationally. Today it ranks #856, 181 places below that high. See the whole 2019 chart.
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Nala
The oldest documented Nala is a man — the king of Nishadha in the Mahabharata, whose separation from and reunion with Damayanti has been retold in Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu and Hindi for something close to two thousand years; a second Nala in the Ramayana is the engineer who builds the bridge to Lanka. The name reached English speakers by an entirely separate route: the 1994 animated film that gave a young lioness the name, after which it began appearing steadily on American birth certificates as a girl's name. It had made rare appearances in US records before the film, but the wave that followed is what put it in classrooms. Its strongest footing today is in the large, linguistically mixed states of the south and west.
Meaningscholars disagree
In Sanskrit, 'reed' or 'stalk' — also the name of a king in the Mahabharata
The Sanskrit reading is solid and old: nala means reed or hollow stalk, and Nala is the hero of the Nala–Damayanti episode of the Mahabharata. The other reading, repeated across name lists since The Lion King, is that Nala means 'gift' or 'beloved' in Swahili. That one is not attested in Swahili dictionaries, which give zawadi for gift; Disney's naming drew on Swahili for Simba and Rafiki, but the gloss for Nala appears to have been supplied afterwards by others. So: a firm old meaning in one language, a popular and doubtful one in another.
Pronouncing Nala
NAH-lah
Two syllables, stress on the first, both vowels open. Some English speakers reach for NAY-lah, which is really the pronunciation of Nayla and Naila — a short correction, but one that recurs.
Nicknames for Nala
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
- 1994 — The Lion King
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1979
- Most girls named
- 2019428 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #675reached in 2019
- Change vs 2024
- −15.5%317 in 2025, from 375
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.
Nala in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- नल (Nala) in Sanskrit — transliteration
- Nal in Hindi — related form
- Nalan in Tamil — related form
- Nalah in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Nalas among us
people named Nala are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 5,070 born in 2025 was named Nala
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Felisha test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Nala's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Felisha climbed just as high around 1988, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Felisha's path sketches the road Nala is walking now.
Nala 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 Nala is headed
Nala should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High 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.
Nala beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Nala in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled the way it sounds, and already familiar to nearly everyone through the film, so it rarely needs repeating or explaining.
- Short, vowel-heavy and pronounceable in Swahili, Spanish, Hindi and English alike — it survives a passport and a phone call.
- A genuinely ancient documented history in Sanskrit epic, independent of its modern American use.
- Doubles as the natural short form of longer names like Nalani and Natalia, which gives a family room to move either direction.
- For a generation or two, the first association will be the lioness in The Lion King — affectionate rather than mocking, but immediate and permanent. It is also a very common pet name for the same reason.
- The 'gift' meaning printed on most name lists isn't supported by Swahili sources. If the meaning is part of why you love it, it's worth knowing the firm one is the Sanskrit 'reed'.
- Nayla, Naila, Nahla and Nala are four different names that sound close, so expect occasional spelling checks despite how simple it looks.
- In South Asian tradition Nala is a man's name, which almost never causes friction in the US but may come up in Indian families or with readers of the epics.
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What they receive
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Nala
Feminine · #856 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Nalas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 6,100 people named Nala are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Nala in 2025?
- Nala ranks #856 among US girl names in 2025, with 317 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Nala?
- About 1 in every 5,070 US girls born in 2025 was named Nala — 317 in all.
- Will my child share the name Nala with classmates?
- Nala will almost certainly be the only one in school.
- What explains the spikes and dips on Nala's chart?
- Nala climbed after 1994 — The Lion King.
Ranked beside Nala
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Darcy#857 · Jamie#857 · Madilynn#859 · Paula#853 · Anaiah#853 · Lilia#859 · Indigo#853 · Kelly#851
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Nala? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Nala and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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