Mala

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Mola in PH Philippines, AR Argentina, FR France and 5 more, Marlee in US United States, AU Australia, CA Canada, Mal in IN India, PK Pakistan and Malla in BR Brazil, EC Ecuador.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 12 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Mala is also recorded as 7 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Ukrainian surname59K records spelled Mala17 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Ukraine, India, Russia, Poland

  Languages: Ukrainian, Russian, Polish

  Also written Мала, Мало, Māla, Malã, Malá

• Indonesian given name26K records spelled Mala6 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria

  Languages: Indonesian, Malay

  Also written Ma'La, 'Mala, Mala'

• a separate given name19K records spelled Mala9 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in India, United States, Pakistan, United Kingdom

  Also written Malá, Malã, Malā, Māla, Mála

• a separate given name3.7K records spelled Mala4 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, India

  Also written Mâlà, Màlà, Mãla

• Finnish given name1.8K records spelled Mala5 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in India, Finland, Hungary, Slovenia

  Languages: Finnish, Hungarian, Estonian

  Also written Malá, Mäla

• French given name1.1K records spelled Mala43 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in France, India, United States, Croatia

  Languages: French, Croatian, Slovenian

  Also written Malo, Mallo, Malô, Malá, Malò

• Amharic given name758 records spelled Mala2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in India, Nigeria, Ethiopia, United States

  Also written ማላ

38 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Mala is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In Portuguese, habitational name from any of several places named Maia, especially one in Porto.

  as a name·Dictionary of American Family Names

• Ciudad de Mexico; Inquisición de México

  as a name·Dicionario Sefaradi De SobrenomesDictionary Of Sephardic Surnames Inclusive Cristaos-Novos, Conversos, Marranos, Italianos,…

• In English, Scottish; the servant of God

  as a name·Baby names, 25,350 baby names nicknames for your family, friends pets, including the top 100 names, 2,000 most popular…

• Rosary, garland,

  as a name·Dictionary of Islamic Names

• In men, v., to lay upon, to add to, to exaggerate. I njiéi malaa, balance, re- mainder due; to cover over, aS a house with grass

  as a word·Vocabulary of the Mende Language

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

EC INEC — Visualizador de Nombres y Apellidos, per-token query API (1900–2024) — 108 years between 1903–2024. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Mala Zimetbaumb. 1918BEBelgian Jew Resistance member (1918–1944)
• Mala Powersb. 1931USAmerican actress (1931-2007)
• Mala Sinhab. 1936INIndian actress
• Mala Rajya Laxmi Shahb. 1950INpolitician and Member of Parliament
• Mala Royb. 1957INIndian politician
• Mala Htunb. 1969USAmerican political scientist
• Mala Gaonkarb. 1969USAmerican businessman
• Mala Ghediab. 1976AUAustralian actor and voice actor
• Mala Klineb. 1977SIresearcher (born 1977)
• Mala Emdeb. 1996DEGerman actress

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 513 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Mala?

We estimate roughly 1.8 million people bear Mala (counting its spellings and scripts) across 13 countries in our records.

In which country does Mala have the most bearers?

We estimate about 1.5 million people bear Mala in Brazil, more than in any other country in our records, where it is most often spelled malla.

Where is Mala most common?

Mala is densest in Brazil, where the national register counts about 1 in 139 people carrying it.

How common is Mala compared with other names?

In India, Mala is the 135th most common surname of 2,352,292 surnames recorded there.

Is Mala a male or female name?

Mala is a female name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Mala mean?

Recorded meaning: habitational name from Maid de Montcal, a village in Girona, or any of several other places named with Maid, which is of pre-Roman origin.