Maleena
A feminine name of Arabic origin denoting a woman with beautiful features.
Name Census estimates that about 889 living Americans carry the first name Maleena. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Maleena today is around 17 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Maleena births was 2017 (47 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Maleena. 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
889
~ 1 in 385,550 Americans
Peak year
2017
47 babies that year
Average age
17
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,964
Tracked since 1991
Census
Maleena in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 663 people with the first name Maleena, which placed it at #16,857 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
#16,857
National first-name rank
People counted
663
663 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
34.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Maleena
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Maleena is White at 34.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (30.0%) and Two or More Races (12.2%). 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 Maleena 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 Maleena at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White34.1% · 226
- Hispanic or Latino30.0% · 199
- Two or more races12.2% · 81
- Black or African American11.0% · 73
- Asian and Pacific Islander10.7% · 71
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.0% · 13
Popularity
Maleena: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Maleena 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 330 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Maleena remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Maleena 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 Maleena during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Maleenas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 5 states and territories. California, Florida, Texas recorded the most babies named Maleena, while Ohio, New York, Texas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 26 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Maleena
The name Maleena is derived from the Arabic language and is a feminine variant of the male name Maleeq. It is believed to have originated in the Middle East and North Africa region during the medieval period, around the 7th to 13th centuries.
Maleena is thought to be derived from the Arabic word "malak," which means "angel" or "heavenly messenger." This suggests that the name may have been given to girls with the hope that they would possess angelic qualities or be blessed by divine protection.
One of the earliest recorded mentions of the name Maleena can be found in the 13th-century Arabic poetry anthology "Al-Muqaddimah" by the renowned historian and philosopher Ibn Khaldun. In this work, Maleena is mentioned as the name of a beautiful and intelligent woman who lived in the city of Tunis during the reign of the Hafsid dynasty.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Maleena. One of the earliest documented figures was Maleena al-Andalusiyya (born c. 1160), a renowned Andalusian poet and scholar who lived in Seville during the Muslim rule of the Iberian Peninsula.
Another prominent figure was Maleena bint Al-Hasan (1192-1283), a princess of the Ayyubid dynasty in Egypt and Syria. She was known for her patronage of the arts and her support for the construction of several important mosques and madrasas (Islamic schools) in Cairo.
In the 16th century, Maleena al-Murshidiyya (1521-1592) was a Sufi mystic and spiritual leader from Morocco. She gained a significant following for her teachings on Islamic mysticism and her role in the spread of the Shadhili Sufi order in North Africa.
During the Ottoman Empire, Maleena Khatun (1768-1824) was a renowned Turkish poet and calligrapher. Her works were highly acclaimed for their lyrical beauty and mastery of the Arabic and Persian poetic forms.
In more recent times, Maleena Loayza (1900-1984) was a Peruvian writer and journalist known for her contributions to the feminist movement and her advocacy for women's rights in Latin America.
These are just a few examples of the many notable individuals throughout history who have carried the name Maleena, reflecting its rich cultural heritage and enduring significance across various regions and time periods.
People
Maleena + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Maleena 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
Maleena: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Maleena?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 889 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Maleena 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 385,550 US residents.
Is Maleena a common name?
We classify Maleena as "Very Rare". It ranks above 89.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 901 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Maleena most popular?
The single biggest year for Maleena was 2017, when 47 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Maleena is about 17 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Maleena in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 663 people with the name Maleena, or 0.22 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #16,857 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 Maleena 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 Maleena?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Maleena appears almost entirely female. Of the 672 people counted with this name, 99.9% 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 Maleena?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Maleena is White at 34.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (30.0%) and Two or More Races (12.2%). 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 Maleena most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Maleena in the 2020 Census, accounting for 34.1% (226 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 Maleena in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Maleena a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Maleena 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 Maleena still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Maleena 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 Maleena 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 named Maleena?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people have the name Maleena at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.