Malai
- Gender
- Girl
- Say it
- mah-LYE
- US rank, 2025
- #10,104 for girls
Malai is a girls' name. In 2025 it ranked 10,104th for girls in the US (9 babies).
Where does Malai come from?
Possibly Thai, from malai 'flower garland'
Is Malai a girl's or a boy's name?
Malai is a girls' name. In 2025, it was given to 9 girls in the US. Too few boys were given it to be listed.
How popular is Malai in the US?
- Rank in 2025
- 10,104th among girls
- Babies in 2025
- 9 about 1 in 180,000 girls
- Five-year trend
- Too rare to call too few babies to tell
- Same name in a class
- under 1% chance among 15 girls
In 2025, 9 girls in the US were named Malai, making it the 10,104th most popular name for girls. Five years earlier, in 2020, it was 6,625th. Its busiest year was 2020, with 17 girls. It first appears in the records in 2005.
Half of all the girls named Malai in the US since 1880 were born between 2009 and 2020, the years shaded on the chart below.
Malai in the US, year by year
| Year | Girls | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 9 | #10,104 |
| 2024 | 10 | #9,551 |
| 2023 | 10 | #9,611 |
| 2022 | 11 | #9,050 |
| 2021 | 0 | – |
| 2020 | 17 | #6,625 |
| 2019 | 10 | #9,730 |
| 2018 | 7 | #12,459 |
| 2017 | 11 | #9,337 |
| 2016 | 5 | #16,210 |
| 2015 | 9 | #10,861 |
| 2014 | 9 | #10,949 |
| 2013 | 10 | #10,230 |
| 2012 | 6 | #14,956 |
| 2011 | 5 | #16,756 |
| 2010 | 10 | #10,446 |
| 2009 | 15 | #8,054 |
| 2008 | 10 | #10,802 |
| 2007 | 16 | #7,729 |
| 2006 | 13 | #8,711 |
| 2005 | 12 | #8,878 |
Names like Malai
Names given in the same years and the same naming tradition, with a similar sound.
Meilani, Kailani, Kaylani, Kehlani, Noa, Milani, Kalani, Alani, Nalani, Naylani, Ailany, Xolani
Names related to Malai
Malia, Maliyah, Malaya, Malayah, Maleah, Maliah, Mayla, Maliya
Sources
Figures from Popular Baby Names (US Social Security Administration). Nameling last updated them on 20 October 2026. How the figures are worked out, and the data to download.
To cite this page: Nameling, “Malai: name meaning, origin and popularity”, https://www.nameling.co.uk/names/malai, updated 20 October 2026.