Maleeha
A feminine name of Arabic origin meaning "sweet, pleasant".
Name Census estimates that about 283 living Americans carry the first name Maleeha. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Maleeha today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Maleeha births was 2018 (17 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Maleeha. 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
283
~ 1 in 1,211,146 Americans
Peak year
2018
17 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2023 SSA rank
#12,953
Tracked since 1993
Popularity
Maleeha: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Maleeha 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 118 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2010s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Maleeha 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 Maleeha during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Maleehas live
Origin
Meaning and history of Maleeha
The name Maleeha is an Arabic name that originates from the Semitic root word "m-l-h" which means "beautiful", "graceful", or "charming". It is believed to have been in use since the early days of Islam, around the 7th century CE, in the Arabian Peninsula and the Middle East.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Maleeha can be found in the historical texts of the Abbasid Caliphate, a prominent Islamic empire that ruled from 750 to 1258 CE. It is mentioned that a woman named Maleeha bint Abi Ateeq was a renowned poet and scholar who lived during the reign of the Abbasid Caliph Al-Mahdi in the 8th century.
In the 10th century, Maleeha al-Bataihiyyah, a renowned Sufi mystic and poet, was known for her spiritual teachings and her influential works on Islamic mysticism. She lived in Baghdad and was greatly respected for her wisdom and knowledge.
During the Ottoman Empire, which ruled over parts of the Middle East and North Africa from the 14th to the early 20th century, the name Maleeha was popular among the ruling elite and aristocracy. One notable figure was Maleeha Sultan, a wife of the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, who lived in the 16th century.
In the 19th century, Maleeha bint Mohammad al-Sudairi was a respected scholar and teacher from the Arabian Peninsula. She was known for her expertise in Islamic jurisprudence and her efforts to promote education for women in the region.
Another historical figure bearing the name Maleeha was Maleeha Lodhi, a Pakistani politician and diplomat who served as the Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the United Nations from 2015 to 2019. She played a significant role in promoting global peace and security during her tenure.
People
Maleeha + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Maleeha 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
Maleeha: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Maleeha?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 283 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Maleeha 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 1,211,146 US residents.
Is Maleeha a common name?
We classify Maleeha as "Very Rare". It ranks above 78.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 287 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Maleeha most popular?
The single biggest year for Maleeha was 2018, when 17 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Maleeha is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Maleeha a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Maleeha 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.
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.