Malena

Spellings & scripts●

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 27 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◐

Malena is also recorded as 6 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• English given name32K records spelled Malena9 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Brazil, Ecuador, Germany

  Languages: English, German, Dutch

  Also written Malèna, Maléna, Målenå

• French given name8.2K records spelled Malena7 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in France, Spain, United States, Belgium

  Languages: French, Catalan

  Also written Maléna, Malèna, Malëna, Malėna, Mãlena

• Norwegian Bokmål given name3.1K records spelled Malena7 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, United States

  Languages: Norwegian Bokmål, Swedish, Danish

  Also written Maléna

• Lao given name1.8K records spelled Malena3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Laos, United States, Peru, Thailand

  Languages: Lao, Thai

  Also written Mälënä

• a separate given name1.5K records spelled Malena2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, United Kingdom, Bolivia, Sweden

  Also written Maléna

• Finnish given name1.3K records spelled Malena3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Finland, Sweden, United States, Estonia

  Languages: Finnish, Estonian

  Also written Målëñâ

47 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●

Malena 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 Swedish, Malena är ursprungligen en nordisk smekform till → Magdalena. En känd namnbärare är sångerskan Malena Ernman (f. 1970). I den rikssvenska almanackan 10 december och i den finlandssvenska 22 juli.

  as a name·Förnamn i Sverige. Kortfattat namnlexikon

• In Italian, unexplained; perhaps from a female personal name.

  as a name·Dictionary of American Family Names

• In pi, instrumental singular of mala (“dirt”)

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In Estonian, essive singular of male

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In hsb, raspberry (fruit)

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

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●

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 76 years between 1886–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Herbert Gintisb. 1940USnot in their usual nameeconomist, Sociobiology researcher (1940–2023)
• Malena Belafonteb. 1967DKDanish model, musician, and entrepreneur
• Malena Alteriob. 1974ARItalian-Argentine-Spanish actress
• Malena Galmarinib. 1975ARArgentine politician
• Malene Winther Mortensenb. 1982DKnot in their usual nameDanish singer
• Malena Morganb. 1991USAmerican pornographic actress
• Malena Valentina Ratnerb. 1995ARArgentine actress, singer and dancer
• Malena Villab. 1995ARArgentine actress and singer-songwriter
• Malene Helgøb. 1999NOnot in their usual nameNorwegian tennis player
• Malena De la Rivacostume designer

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 · 822 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Malena?

We estimate roughly 13 thousand people bear Malena (counting its spellings and scripts) across 13 countries in our records.

In which country does Malena have the most bearers?

Malena is most frequently recorded in Argentina, where it is most often spelled malena.

How common is Malena compared with other names?

In Argentina, Malena is the 353rd most common given name of 517,176 given names recorded there.

Is Malena a male or female name?

Malena 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 Malena mean?

Recorded meaning: nickname derived from maly ‘small’ (see Maly).