Meaning and background
The story behind Malia
Malia is an established Hawaiian form of Maria. The Hawaiian pronunciation has three distinct vowel sounds, while modern English commonly reduces the beginning to “mə”, making the first two syllables flow differently. The name is sometimes incorrectly assigned a direct Hawaiian meaning such as “calm”; that confuses it with other vocabulary. Its documented history is as a form of another personal name, whose own ancient etymology remains disputed.
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About Malia
Recorded as a dog’s name
Malia appears in 2 dog licence records in the 2018 New York City dataset.
How to read this count
These records cover New York City and may count the same dog in more than one licence period. They are not a national popularity ranking.
Pronunciation and rhythm
/mɑliə/
US English sound sequence, converted from the CMU dictionary. Stress marks are shown separately.
Stress on the first syllable in the recorded US readings.
View dictionary notation
/mɑliə/ · primary stress on syllable 1M AA1 L IY0 AH0
These are US dictionary readings. Personal, regional and other language pronunciations may differ.
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Sources and research notes (2)
- New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene NYC Dog Licensing Dataset — all seven available extract years, retrieved 24 October 2026 — Recorded name spellings in NYC licence-period rows, extract years 2016–2018, 2022–2024 and 2026. Evidence selects one stated year per name. Annual snapshots overlap; never sum them as unique dogs. No national popularity, etymology or owner naming-intent claim.
- Carnegie Mellon University / CMU Sphinx maintainers CMU US English Pronouncing Dictionary — US English dictionary readings; not owner-specific or exhaustive multilingual pronunciation
References support the individual facts shown. A source link does not mean the entire profile has been verified.