Malaina
A feminine name of uncertain origin, potentially meaning "dark beauty".
Name Census estimates that about 860 living Americans carry the first name Malaina. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Malaina today is around 22 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Malaina births was 2007 (55 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Malaina. 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.
People living today
860
~ 1 in 398,552 Americans
Peak year
2007
55 babies that year
Average age
22
years old
2024 SSA rank
#8,731
Tracked since 1965
Census
Malaina in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 733 people with the first name Malaina, which placed it at #15,631 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
#15,631
National first-name rank
People counted
733
733 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
59.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Malaina
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Malaina is White at 59.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (16.2%) and Black (11.7%). 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 Malaina 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 Malaina at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White59.1% · 433
- Hispanic or Latino16.2% · 119
- Black or African American11.7% · 86
- Two or more races7.9% · 58
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.9% · 21
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.2% · 16
Popularity
Malaina: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Malaina from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 343 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Malaina 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 Malaina during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Malainas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 6 states and territories. Pennsylvania, California, Ohio recorded the most babies named Malaina, while Wisconsin, Illinois, Texas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 10 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Malaina
The name Malaina is believed to have its origins in the Hawaiian language, where it is derived from the words "mala" meaning "garden" and "aina" meaning "land" or "earth." This suggests that the name may have been given to individuals who had a deep connection with nature and the land they lived on.
In Hawaiian culture, which dates back to the ancient Polynesian settlers of the Hawaiian Islands, names often held significant meaning and reflected important aspects of an individual's identity or the circumstances surrounding their birth. The name Malaina may have been bestowed upon a child born in a fertile or lush environment, or one whose birth was celebrated with the planting of a new garden.
The earliest recorded instances of the name Malaina can be traced back to the late 18th century, when Hawaiian names began to be documented more extensively by European explorers and missionaries. One of the earliest known individuals to bear this name was Malaina Kamakau, a Hawaiian historian and scholar who lived in the early 19th century and documented the oral traditions and history of the Hawaiian people.
Throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, the name Malaina appeared in various historical records and accounts, often associated with individuals from the Hawaiian Islands or those with Hawaiian heritage. Notable figures include Malaina Kapeka, a Hawaiian singer and musician born in the late 19th century, and Malaina Kauhi, a renowned hula dancer and teacher who helped preserve and promote the traditional Hawaiian art form in the early 20th century.
Another significant bearer of the name was Malaina Desha, a Hawaiian activist and advocate for Native Hawaiian rights, who played a pivotal role in the Hawaiian Renaissance movement of the 1970s and worked tirelessly to preserve and promote Hawaiian language, culture, and sovereignty.
In more recent times, the name Malaina has been adopted by individuals from various cultural backgrounds, often drawn to its unique and melodic sound or its connection to the natural world. While it may not be as widely used as some other Hawaiian names, Malaina continues to hold a special place in the cultural heritage of the Hawaiian Islands and serves as a reminder of the rich traditions and values of this Polynesian culture.
People
Malaina + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Malaina 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
Malaina: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Malaina?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 860 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Malaina 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 398,552 US residents.
Is Malaina a common name?
We classify Malaina as "Very Rare". It ranks above 89.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 880 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Malaina most popular?
The single biggest year for Malaina was 2007, when 55 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Malaina is about 22 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Malaina in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 733 people with the name Malaina, or 0.24 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #15,631 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 Malaina 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 Malaina?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Malaina appears almost entirely female. Of the 729 people counted with this name, 100.0% 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 Malaina?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Malaina is White at 59.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (16.2%) and Black (11.7%). 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 Malaina most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Malaina in the 2020 Census, accounting for 59.1% (433 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 Malaina in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Malaina a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Malaina 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 Malaina still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Malaina 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 Malaina 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 the name Malaina?
See how many people have the name Malaina on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.