MEANING & CONTEXT
What does Mala mean?
Mālā is the Sanskrit garland noun used as the name Mala. The word can also describe a string of beads used for counting recitations.
Pronunciation
IAST: mālā
Meaning themes
Spellings in Indian scripts
Devanagari
माला
Letter-by-letter: mālā
Conventional spelling
Tamil
மாலா
Conventional spelling
Telugu
మాల
Conventional spelling
HISTORICAL VOTER RECORDS
Mala in Indian usage
151,733 historical electoral-roll records, chiefly adults, rather than current baby-name rankings.
Mostly recorded for girls (90.5%) in these historical records.
- Recorded as female: 137,317 records (90.5%).
- Recorded as male: 14,416 records (9.5%).
By birth decade
| Birth decade | Records |
|---|---|
| 1930s | 1,821 |
| 1940s | 4,230 |
| 1950s | 9,456 |
| 1960s | 23,933 |
| 1970s | 36,964 |
| 1980s | 46,898 |
| 1990s | 27,885 |
| Other decades | 546 |
By state or territory
| State / territory | Records |
|---|---|
| Bihar | 64,513 |
| Uttar Pradesh | 29,978 |
| Jharkhand | 11,060 |
| Rajasthan | 8,495 |
| Madhya Pradesh | 6,969 |
| Andhra Pradesh | 6,776 |
| Delhi | 4,054 |
| Odisha | 3,708 |
| Karnataka | 3,610 |
| Haryana | 2,212 |
| Punjab | 1,962 |
| Uttarakhand | 1,656 |
| Assam | 1,570 |
| Gujarat | 1,214 |
| Puducherry | 806 |
| Maharashtra | 788 |
| Himachal Pradesh | 759 |
| Tripura | 313 |
| Kerala | 230 |
| Chandigarh | 188 |
| Meghalaya | 185 |
| Manipur | 155 |
| Arunachal Pradesh | 150 |
| Goa | 145 |
| Other states | 237 |
How to read these numbers
Small counts and a second count where needed are withheld for privacy; an omitted value is not zero. Coverage, dates and suppression.
Recorded abroad
Official births registered in 2025, for the exact spelling shown.
| Jurisdiction | Spelling / recorded sex | Births | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| England & Wales | Mala / F | 8 | 3,035 |
ONS and National Records of Scotland; Crown copyright, Open Government Licence v3. Counts follow each office’s publication rules.
Explore related lists
Sources
- Historical Indian voter-record totals, v3 ↗ (opens in a new tab)
Historical usage; CC0 1.0; birth years 1910–2001
- England & Wales 2025 birth statistics: Exact spelling Mala; Table_6, C3220 ↗ (opens in a new tab)
Exact spelling Mala; Table_6, C3220
- Monier-Williams, mālā, p. 813,3 ↗ (opens in a new tab)
- Wiktionary: माला ↗ (opens in a new tab)
meaning
Adapted dictionary text: CC BY-SA 4.0.