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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Maleeha with official rankings and popularity over time.
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
Census
Maleeha in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 438 people with the first name Maleeha, which placed it at #22,648 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
#22,648
National first-name rank
People counted
438
438 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
74.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Maleeha
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Maleeha is Asian/Pacific Islander at 74.9%. The next largest groups are Black (10.0%) and White (7.1%). 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 Maleeha 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 Maleeha at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander74.9% · 328
- Black or African American10.0% · 44
- White7.1% · 31
- Two or more races5.7% · 25
- Hispanic or Latino2.3% · 10
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.
How common was Maleeha in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 438 people with the name Maleeha, or 0.15 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #22,648 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 Maleeha 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 Maleeha?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Maleeha appears almost entirely female. Of the 433 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 Maleeha?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Maleeha is Asian/Pacific Islander at 74.9%. The next largest groups are Black (10.0%) and White (7.1%). 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 Maleeha most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Maleeha in the 2020 Census, accounting for 74.9% (328 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 Maleeha in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
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.
Is Maleeha still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Maleeha 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 Maleeha 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 are called Maleeha?
Find out how many people have the name Maleeha on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.