Malina
A feminine name of Slavic origin meaning "raspberry".
Name Census estimates that about 4,237 living Americans carry the first name Malina. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Malina today is around 22 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Malina births was 2009 (169 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Malina. 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 Malina with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
4.2K
~ 1 in 80,896 Americans
Peak year
2009
169 babies that year
Average age
22
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,221
Tracked since 1920
Census
Malina in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,740 people with the first name Malina, which placed it at #4,820 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
#4,820
National first-name rank
People counted
3.7K
3,740 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
41.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Malina
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Malina is White at 41.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (25.5%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (12.6%). 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 Malina 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 Malina at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White41.1% · 1,538
- Hispanic or Latino25.5% · 952
- Asian and Pacific Islander12.6% · 470
- Two or more races9.9% · 372
- Black or African American9.8% · 365
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 43
Popularity
Malina: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Malina from the 1920s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 1,348 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Malina remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Malina 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 Malina during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Malinas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 24 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Malina, while Utah, Oregon, Colorado recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 86 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Malina
The name Malina has its origins in several Slavic languages, including Russian, Polish, and Serbian. It is a feminine form of the name Malen'kiy, which means "small" or "little" in Russian.
In Polish, the name Malina is derived from the word "malina," which means "raspberry." This connection to the fruit suggests that the name may have been associated with nature and fertility in its earliest usage.
While the exact origins of the name are unclear, it is believed to have been in use as early as the 12th century in various Slavic regions. Some historical records suggest that the name was popular among the nobility and upper classes in certain areas.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Malina can be found in the 14th-century Russian epic poem "The Tale of Igor's Campaign." The poem mentions a character named Malina, though it is unclear whether this was a real person or a fictional character.
Throughout history, there have been several notable figures who bore the name Malina. One of the most famous was Malina Smit (1892-1976), a Dutch artist known for her impressionistic paintings of landscapes and still lifes.
Another notable Malina was Malina Olinescu (1905-1985), a Romanian mathematician and educator who made significant contributions to the field of algebraic geometry.
In the world of literature, Malina Błońska (1918-1994) was a Polish writer and poet whose works explored themes of love, loss, and the human condition.
Malina Iordache (1932-2008) was a Romanian gymnast who won multiple Olympic medals in the 1950s and is considered one of the greatest gymnasts of her era.
More recently, Malina Weissman (born 2003) is an American actress best known for her role as Violet Baudelaire in the Netflix series "A Series of Unfortunate Events."
While the name Malina may have fallen out of favor in some regions, it remains a beautiful and meaningful choice with a rich cultural and historical background.
People
Malina + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Malina 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
Malina: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Malina?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 4,237 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Malina 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 80,896 US residents.
Is Malina a common name?
We classify Malina as "Rare". It ranks above 96.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,364 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Malina most popular?
The single biggest year for Malina was 2009, when 169 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Malina 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 Malina in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,740 people with the name Malina, or 1.24 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,820 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 Malina 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 Malina?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Malina appears almost entirely female. Of the 3,733 people counted with this name, 99.8% 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 Malina?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Malina is White at 41.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (25.5%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (12.6%). 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 Malina most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Malina in the 2020 Census, accounting for 41.1% (1,538 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 Malina in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Malina a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Malina 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 Malina still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Malina 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 Malina 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 common is the name Malina?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.