Maliyah
A feminine name of Arabic origin meaning "queen" or "lady of nobility".
Name Census estimates that about 14,752 living Americans carry the first name Maliyah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Maliyah today is around 13 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Maliyah births was 2009 (1,117 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Maliyah. 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 Maliyah with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Maliyah 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
15K
~ 1 in 23,234 Americans
Peak year
2009
1,117 babies that year
Average age
13
years old
2024 SSA rank
#587
Tracked since 1994
Census
Maliyah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 8,942 people with the first name Maliyah, which placed it at #2,645 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
#2,645
National first-name rank
People counted
8.9K
8,942 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
3.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
53.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Maliyah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Maliyah is Black at 53.7%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (16.8%) and Hispanic (16.3%). 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 Maliyah 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 Maliyah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American53.7% · 4,804
- Two or more races16.8% · 1,504
- Hispanic or Latino16.3% · 1,459
- White9.9% · 883
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.8% · 162
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.5% · 130
Popularity
Maliyah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Maliyah from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 7,939 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Maliyah remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Maliyah 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 Maliyah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Maliyahs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 42 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Maliyah, while Rhode Island, Idaho, West Virginia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 330 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Maliyah
The name Maliyah is a modern variant of the Arabic name Maliah, which has its roots in the Arabic word 'maliah', meaning 'beautiful' or 'lovely'. This name is believed to have originated in the Middle East, particularly in regions with a strong Arabic influence.
The earliest recorded use of the name Maliah can be traced back to the 7th century, during the time of the Islamic Golden Age. It is possible that the name was mentioned in some ancient Arabic texts or literature from that period, although specific references are scarce.
One of the earliest known individuals with the name Maliah was Maliah bint Abi Sufyan, who lived in the 7th century and was a companion of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. She was known for her piety and dedication to the faith.
In the 12th century, a famous Arab poet and scholar named Maliah al-Andalusi hailed from Al-Andalus (modern-day Spain). She was renowned for her contributions to Arabic literature and her mastery of various poetic forms.
During the Ottoman Empire, which ruled over parts of the Middle East and North Africa from the 14th to the 20th century, the name Maliah was relatively common among Muslim families. One notable figure was Maliah Hatun, a 16th-century Ottoman princess and daughter of Sultan Selim II.
As the name Maliah spread to other regions, it evolved into various spellings and forms, one of which is the modern variant Maliyah. This spelling became more prevalent in the 20th century, particularly in the United States and other Western countries.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Maliyah was Maliyah Kush, an American artist and writer born in 1944. She was known for her contributions to the Harlem Renaissance literary movement and her exploration of African American culture and identity.
People
Maliyah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Maliyah 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
Maliyah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Maliyah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 14,752 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Maliyah 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 23,234 US residents.
Is Maliyah a common name?
We classify Maliyah as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 14,888 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Maliyah most popular?
The single biggest year for Maliyah was 2009, when 1,117 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Maliyah 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 Maliyah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 8,942 people with the name Maliyah, or 2.96 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,645 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 Maliyah 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 Maliyah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Maliyah appears almost entirely female. Of the 8,935 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 Maliyah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Maliyah is Black at 53.7%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (16.8%) and Hispanic (16.3%). 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 Maliyah most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Maliyah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 53.7% (4,804 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 Maliyah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Maliyah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Maliyah 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 Maliyah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Maliyah 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 Maliyah 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 have Maliyah as a first name?
If you just want to know how many Americans are named Maliyah, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.