Nala
#856 for girls in 2025, 317 births
- Peak · girls
- 2019 · 428 births
- Debut · girls
- 5 births
- In top 100 · girls
- neverof 146 years
- Total births · girls
- 6,138since 1979
Nala over time
Rank among girls' names. Nala has never cracked the top 600 here.
Gaps mean fewer than 5 babies received the name that year, so the SSA doesn't publish it.
Show data table
| Year | girls | |
|---|---|---|
| rank | births | |
| 2025 | #856 | 317 |
| 2024 | #752 | 375 |
| 2023 | #845 | 320 |
| 2022 | #804 | 351 |
| 2021 | #740 | 385 |
| 2020 | #695 | 406 |
| 2019 | #675 | 428 |
| 2018 | #741 | 374 |
| 2017 | #765 | 362 |
| 2016 | #777 | 365 |
| 2015 | #949 | 286 |
| 2014 | #993 | 267 |
| 2013 | #1,062 | 234 |
| 2012 | #1,055 | 238 |
| 2011 | #1,434 | 158 |
| 2010 | #1,688 | 125 |
| 2009 | #1,889 | 111 |
| 2008 | #1,816 | 119 |
| 2007 | #2,163 | 92 |
| 2006 | #1,961 | 102 |
| 2005 | #2,457 | 71 |
| 2004 | #1,972 | 94 |
| 2003 | #2,203 | 78 |
| 2002 | #3,014 | 48 |
| 2001 | #2,663 | 56 |
| 2000 | #2,817 | 51 |
| 1999 | #2,703 | 51 |
| 1998 | #2,530 | 54 |
| 1997 | #2,391 | 55 |
| 1996 | #2,476 | 51 |
| 1995 | #1,715 | 85 |
| 1994 | #4,238 | 24 |
| 1993 | — | |
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| 1979 | #10,210 | 5 |
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The first year at least five girls were named Nala! It came in at #10,210, and was given to 5 baby girls.
Quietest stretch: 1979–1993, when fewer than 6 girls a year got the name.
Where Nala is popular in 2016
- Rank in state
- Top 10
- 11–50
- 51–100
- 101–500
- 501+
- Not published
Hover or tap a state for its numbers.
- North Carolina#386 · 1 in 1,743
- South Carolina#395 · 1 in 1,623
- Louisiana#458 · 1 in 1,908
- Massachusetts#477 · 1 in 2,316
- Kansas#522 · 1 in 2,101
Best ever in a state: #146 in District of Columbia, 2024.
Show every state
| State | Rank | Births | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| North Carolina | #386 | 26 | 1 in 1,743 |
| South Carolina | #395 | 11 | 1 in 1,623 |
| Louisiana | #458 | 11 | 1 in 1,908 |
| Massachusetts | #477 | 11 | 1 in 2,316 |
| Kansas | #522 | 6 | 1 in 2,101 |
| Georgia | #533 | 19 | 1 in 2,529 |
| Michigan | #550 | 15 | 1 in 2,805 |
| Ohio | #555 | 18 | 1 in 2,893 |
| Wisconsin | #558 | 9 | 1 in 2,589 |
| New Jersey | #571 | 13 | 1 in 2,814 |
| Maryland | #617 | 8 | 1 in 3,005 |
| Indiana | #624 | 10 | 1 in 3,029 |
| Tennessee | #637 | 10 | 1 in 3,104 |
| New York | #648 | 26 | 1 in 3,455 |
| Florida | #672 | 24 | 1 in 3,613 |
| Kentucky | #721 | 5 | 1 in 3,652 |
| Pennsylvania | #763 | 12 | 1 in 4,321 |
| Alabama | #781 | 5 | 1 in 3,875 |
| Arizona | #859 | 7 | 1 in 4,420 |
| Illinois | #865 | 12 | 1 in 4,802 |
| Minnesota | #873 | 5 | 1 in 4,908 |
| Washington | #971 | 6 | 1 in 5,357 |
| Texas | #988 | 28 | 1 in 5,975 |
| California | #1,184 | 25 | 1 in 8,149 |
| Alaska | — | — | — |
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Ranks are within each state; “1 in N” is out of the girls born there that year. The SSA only publishes a name in a state when 5 or more babies of one sex got it.
See more about Nala
- 104 spots since 2024 (#752 → #856)
- 161 spots since 2020 (#695 → #856)
- 93 spots since 2015 (#949 → #856)
- Biggest jump: 172 spots in 2016 (#949 → #777)
- Biggest drop: 104 spots in 2025 (#752 → #856)
- Debuted 1979
- Peaked 2019 at #675 (428 births)
- Not yet halved from its peak
- Top 10: never
- Top 100: never
- Top 1,000: 12 yrs · run 2014–2025
- Highest: 1 in 3,921 girls born in 2019 were named Nala (0.03%)
- Latest: 1 in 5,070 girls born in 2025 (0.02%)
- 46.2% of all girls named Nala (2,837) were born in this decade
Show by decade
| Decade | Births | Best rank | Avg rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1970s | 5 | #10,210 (1979) | #10,210 |
| 1980s | 0 | — | — |
| 1990s | 320 | #1,715 (1995) | #2,676 |
| 2000s | 822 | #1,816 (2008) | #2,296 |
| 2010s | 2,837 | #675 (2019) | #1,014 |
| 2020s | 2,154 | #695 (2020) | #782 |
All figures count published births only (names given to at least 5 girls in a year). Registrations before 1937 are incomplete, so early shares and totals run low.
Nala in 2016
Top girls' names in 2016
More about 2016
girls
1,772,022 girls got a published name in 2016; 1 in 4,855 of them was named Nala, which outranked 95.9% of the 18,885 girls' names that year. The ten most popular names covered 8.3% of girls (24.6% in 1880, 7.0% in 2025).
Among names in the top 1,000 of either year.