Malikah
A feminine Arabic name meaning "queen" or "sovereign ruler".
Name Census estimates that about 982 living Americans carry the first name Malikah. It is a predominantly female name (91.8% of registrations). The average person named Malikah today is around 32 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Malikah births was 1979 (45 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Malikah. 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 Malikah with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
982
~ 1 in 349,037 Americans
Peak year
1979
45 babies that year
Average age
32
years old
2017 SSA rank
#9,387
Tracked since 1968
Census
Malikah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 866 people with the first name Malikah, which placed it at #13,813 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
#13,813
National first-name rank
People counted
866
866 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
83.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Malikah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Malikah is Black at 83.5%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (5.1%) and White (5.0%). 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 Malikah 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 Malikah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American83.5% · 723
- Two or more races5.1% · 44
- White5.0% · 43
- Hispanic or Latino3.6% · 31
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.8% · 16
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 9
Gender
Gender distribution for Malikah
Malikah leans heavily female at 91.8% of total registrations, but 84 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Malikah as a male name
- Ranked #9,387 in 2017
- 8 male births in 2017
- Peak: 2008 (13 births)
Malikah as a female name
- Ranked #11,721 in 2024
- 8 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1979 (45 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Malikah leans strongly female. 792 people counted with this name were female (91.0%), compared with 78 male bearers (9.0%).
Popularity
Malikah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Malikah from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 267 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Malikah 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 Malikah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Malikahs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 7 states and territories. New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Malikah, while Florida, California, Ohio recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 28 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Malikah
Malikah is a feminine given name derived from the Arabic word "malik," meaning "king" or "sovereign ruler." The name has its roots in the ancient Arabic language and culture, tracing back to the 7th century CE.
The name Malikah gained prominence during the Islamic Golden Age, a period of significant cultural, economic, and scientific advancements in the Islamic world. It was often associated with royalty, nobility, and positions of authority.
One of the earliest recorded references to the name Malikah can be found in the Quran, the central religious text of Islam. In the Quran, the term "malik" is used to refer to God as the King or Sovereign Ruler of the universe.
Throughout history, several notable women have borne the name Malikah. One of the earliest examples is Malikah bint Huwayrith, a respected scholar and jurist who lived in the 7th century CE and played a significant role in the preservation and transmission of Islamic teachings.
Another prominent figure was Malikah al-Shamiya, a 9th-century Arab poet and writer from Damascus who was renowned for her contributions to Arabic literature and her mastery of the Arabic language.
In the 12th century, Malikah Khātūn was a prominent female ruler and the wife of the Seljuk Sultan Malik Shah I. She played an influential role in the administration of the Seljuk Empire and was known for her patronage of arts and culture.
During the Mamluk period in Egypt and Syria, which lasted from the 13th to the 16th century, the name Malikah was often given to female members of the ruling elite. One notable example was Malikah Artuqiya, a princess and influential figure in the Artuqid dynasty of Amid (modern-day Diyarbakır, Turkey) in the 12th century.
In more recent times, Malikah Shabazz, the youngest daughter of Malcolm X and Betty Shabazz, continues to carry on the legacy of her father's name and work as a human rights activist and author. She was born in 1965.
These examples illustrate the rich history and significance of the name Malikah across various periods and regions of the Islamic world, reflecting its association with leadership, authority, and cultural influence.
People
Malikah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Malikah 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
Malikah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Malikah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 982 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Malikah 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 349,037 US residents.
Is Malikah a common name?
We classify Malikah as "Very Rare". It ranks above 90% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,027 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Malikah most popular?
The single biggest year for Malikah was 1979, when 45 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Malikah is about 32 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Malikah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 866 people with the name Malikah, or 0.29 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #13,813 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 Malikah 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 Malikah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Malikah leans strongly female. 792 people counted with this name were female (91.0%), compared with 78 male bearers (9.0%). 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 Malikah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Malikah is Black at 83.5%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (5.1%) and White (5.0%). 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 Malikah most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Malikah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 83.5% (723 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 Malikah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Malikah a female name?
Yes, 91.8% of people registered as Malikah 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 Malikah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Malikah 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 Malikah 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 Malikah as a first name?
If you just want to know how many Americans are named Malikah, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.