Malaysia
A land of lush tropical rainforests and indigenous peoples.
Name Census estimates that about 10,640 living Americans carry the first name Malaysia. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Malaysia today is around 13 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Malaysia births was 2014 (822 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Malaysia. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Malaysia with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Malaysia is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 13 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
11K
~ 1 in 32,214 Americans
Peak year
2014
822 babies that year
Average age
13
years old
2024 SSA rank
#857
Tracked since 1987
Census
Malaysia in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 6,216 people with the first name Malaysia, which placed it at #3,392 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#3,392
National first-name rank
People counted
6.2K
6,216 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
85.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Malaysia
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Malaysia is Black at 85.5%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (5.6%) and Hispanic (5.5%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Malaysia described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Malaysia at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American85.5% · 5,317
- Two or more races5.6% · 351
- Hispanic or Latino5.5% · 341
- White2.1% · 131
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 44
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.5% · 32
Popularity
Malaysia: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Malaysia from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 5,706 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Malaysia remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Malaysia by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Malaysia during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Malaysias live
The SSA's state-level files cover 36 states and territories. Georgia, Florida, Texas recorded the most babies named Malaysia, while Washington, Nebraska, Colorado recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 265 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Malaysia
The name Malaysia is a relatively modern name derived from the name of the country Malaysia. It is not an ancient name and has no known origins in any particular language or culture from antiquity.
The name Malaysia is believed to have been coined by the British explorer and adventurer Sir Stamford Raffles in the early 19th century. He formed the name by combining the word "Malays" referring to the Malay ethnic group, and the Greek word "nēsos" meaning island. This was intended to refer to the Malay Archipelago region which later became known as Malaysia.
As the name is directly derived from the country's name, there are no known historical references or examples of it being used as a personal name prior to the 20th century. The earliest recorded use of Malaysia as a given name likely emerged after the country gained independence in 1957 and the name became more widely known globally.
Throughout history, there have been a few notable individuals with the first name Malaysia, though most examples are from recent decades. Here are five examples:
1. Malaysia Vasudevan (born 1965), an Indian-Malaysian author and academic.
2. Malaysia Anne Boyette (born 1977), an American professional wrestler better known by her ring name Kylie Rae.
3. Malaysia Pargo (born 1980), an American basketball player and reality TV personality.
4. Malaysia Goodson (1985-2019), an American mother who tragically died after falling down a subway staircase while carrying her infant daughter.
5. Malaysia Moussa (born 1990), a French-Malian basketball player.
As the name is relatively new and directly tied to the country's name, there are limited historical examples of individuals bearing the first name Malaysia prior to the 20th century. It is a unique name that reflects the growing global awareness and influence of the Southeast Asian nation in modern times.
People
Malaysia + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Malaysia as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with M
Other first names starting with M with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Malaysia: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Malaysia?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 10,640 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Malaysia going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 32,214 US residents.
Is Malaysia a common name?
We classify Malaysia as "Uncommon". It ranks above 97.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 10,753 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Malaysia most popular?
The single biggest year for Malaysia was 2014, when 822 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Malaysia is about 13 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Malaysia in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 6,216 people with the name Malaysia, or 2.06 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,392 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Malaysia in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Malaysia?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Malaysia appears almost entirely female. Of the 6,214 people counted with this name, 99.7% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Malaysia?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Malaysia is Black at 85.5%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (5.6%) and Hispanic (5.5%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Malaysia most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Malaysia in the 2020 Census, accounting for 85.5% (5,317 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Malaysia in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Malaysia a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Malaysia in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Malaysia still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Malaysia in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Malaysia can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people share the name Malaysia?
Want to know how many people share the name Malaysia? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.