Malia
Meaning
calm, peaceful
The story
Malia is Hawaiian, and our records read it as calm and peaceful; it also serves, by long usage, as the Hawaiian form of Maria, two readings resting comfortably in one name. The record shows island-scale use for decades, then the presidential decade: about 2,500 in the 1990s became 8,200 in the 2000s, the decade America met a six-year-old Malia on election night, and 11,100 in the 2010s as she grew up in the White House; decade buckets point, they do not convict, but few names get eight years of front pages. It stands at 6,500 so far this decade. One figure is absolute: across the whole record, not one boy, 31,600 girls to zero. Calm, peaceful, Maria, and a motorcade: the name carries all four now, and carries them lightly.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Malia peaked in the 2010s.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
526 people · the #12,899 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 333,333 · median age 4
Among people named Malia living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 2010s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 241 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Malia
Most people given the name Malia in the United States are children or teenagers today. The name belongs to this generation.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Malia deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Malia truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Malia fits with your family’s names and surname.
Where Malia travels
Samoan · Samoan form of Mary: beloved
Keep exploring
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