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Data story

The sound of Malaysian names

Girls’ names in this reference most often end in -a, boys’ names in -n. This story measures the shape of names: last letters, endings, syllables and first letters, as shares.

Names analysed
4,073
Girls ending in -a
46%
Boys ending in -n
21%
Usual syllables (G · B)
3 · 2

Last letters: -a for girls, -n for boys

46% of girls’ names end in -a, while the most common last letter of boys’ names is -n (21%). Percentages are shares of each sex’s names.

Girls (%) Boys (%)

  1. Girls (%): 46.4 -a Boys (%): 8.2
  2. Girls (%): 22.3 -i Boys (%): 13.8
  3. Girls (%): 17.7 -h Boys (%): 7.8
  4. Girls (%): 3.7 -n Boys (%): 21.3
  5. Girls (%): 1.2 -r Boys (%): 9.6
  6. Girls (%): 1.5 -l Boys (%): 7.7
Share of single-word names ending in each letter (1,442 girls’, 2,461 boys’).

The most common two-letter endings

-ah leads girls’ names and -an leads boys’ names. The examples under each chart are the best-known names with that ending.

Girl Names

  1. -ah 17.3%
  2. -na 8.4%
  3. -ti 6.4%
  4. -ni 5.8%
  5. -ha 5.5%
  6. -ra 4.2%
  7. -ya 3.7%
  8. -ta 3.7%
Share of 1,442 girl names.

Boy Names

  1. -an 11.9%
  2. -in 7.4%
  3. -ar 4.9%
  4. -ah 4.1%
  5. -ri 3.2%
  6. -al 2.8%
  7. -am 2.7%
  8. -ir 2.6%
Share of 2,461 boy names.

Syllables: 2 for boys, 3 for girls

Boys’ names most often have 2 syllables, girls’ names 3. One-syllable names are only 1.4% (girls) and 3.2% (boys).

1 · Girl: 1.4%1 · Boy: 3.2% 1 2 · Girl: 35.7%2 · Boy: 59.9% 2 59.9 3 · Girl: 49.2%3 · Boy: 27% 3 49.2 4 · Girl: 13.2%4 · Boy: 8.9% 4 5+ · Girl: 0.4%5+ · Boy: 0.9% 5+
Percentage of names by number of syllables (1,419 girls’ and 2,438 boys’ names with a sourced syllabification).
SyllablesGirlBoy
11.43.2
235.759.9
349.227
413.28.9
5+0.40.9

First letters

S most often opens a girl’s name and A a boy’s name. The top six letters for each sex are shown.

Girl Names

  1. S 15.3%
  2. A 12.2%
  3. M 9.8%
  4. N 9.7%
  5. R 8.2%
  6. K 5.8%

Boy Names

  1. A 15.7%
  2. S 14.1%
  3. M 11.8%
  4. R 6.8%
  5. N 5.5%
  6. H 5.2%

First letters in the JPN tables, decade by decade

Each cell shows the most common first letter in one JPN table and its share of the top-10 total. In the 'Malay' boys’ table, M held 89% in the 2010s.

Columns are decades of birth (40 = 1940s … 10 = 2010s); a deeper colour means one letter held a larger share. Source: JPN via data.gov.my (CC BY 4.0).

The -ah ending in the 'Malay' girls’ table

Entries ending in -ah held 88% of the top-10 total in the 1940s and 4.5% in the 2010s. The “other” share in the 2010s is mostly Nur.

  • Ends in -ah
  • Ends in -a or -i
  • Other
0%50%100% 1940s · Ends in -ah: 88%1940s · Other: 12% 1940s 1950s · Ends in -ah: 81%1950s · Ends in -a or -i: 9.1%1950s · Other: 9.9% 1950s 1960s · Ends in -ah: 61%1960s · Ends in -a or -i: 31%1960s · Other: 8.8% 1960s 1970s · Ends in -ah: 18%1970s · Ends in -a or -i: 82% 1970s 1980s · Ends in -ah: 28%1980s · Ends in -a or -i: 61%1980s · Other: 11% 1980s 1990s · Ends in -ah: 70%1990s · Ends in -a or -i: 8.7%1990s · Other: 21% 1990s 2000s · Ends in -ah: 35%2000s · Ends in -a or -i: 9.2%2000s · Other: 56% 2000s 2010s · Ends in -ah: 4.5%2010s · Ends in -a or -i: 12%2010s · Other: 83% 2010s
Share of the top-10 girls’ total in the JPN 'Malay' table, by the ending of each entry’s last word. Source: JPN via data.gov.my (CC BY 4.0).
Show the table
DecadeEnds in -ahEnds in -a or -iOther
1940s88%0%12%
1950s81%9.1%9.9%
1960s61%31%8.8%
1970s18%82%0%
1980s28%61%11%
1990s70%8.7%21%
2000s35%9.2%56%
2010s4.5%12%83%

Top entry each decade: 1940s Fatimah · 1950s Fatimah · 1960s Rohani · 1970s Norhayati · 1980s Noraini · 1990s Nur Hidayah · 2000s Nur · 2010s Nur

Name lists by sound

Sources

How these figures were computed

The records part uses the 4,073 single-word given names in this reference spelled in plain Latin letters (1,442 girls’, 2,461 boys’; unisex names, compound names and Chinese name syllables are left out). Syllables come from the sourced syllabification (Mu-ham-mad), only for names that have one. The JPN part uses the registered first names as published by JPN: the top 10 per sex, decade and table. Every percentage is a share of that decade’s top-10 total, not of all births; a JPN entry can be two words (Siti Hajar), and its ending is taken from the last word.

Last updated .

How to cite

Free to quote with a link to this page. Suggested citation:

MalaysianNames (malaysiannames.com). “Malaysian Name Sounds: 4,073 Names by Letter”. https://malaysiannames.com/en/data-stories/sound-of-malaysian-names/. Updated . Data: JPN via data.gov.my (CC BY 4.0), last updated 2023-07-26.

Download the JPN top-10 tables we use (decade, table, sex, rank, name, count, share of the top-10 total):

Source: JPN via data.gov.my (CC BY 4.0)

Frequently asked questions

Which letter most often ends a girl’s name?

In this reference, -a: 46% of 1,442 single-word girls’ names. For boys, -n (21%).

How many syllables does a typical name have?

Most boys’ names have 2 syllables (60%), and most girls’ names 3 (49%).

Do the JPN figures cover all babies?

No. JPN publishes only the top 10 names per sex and table. The percentages here are shares of those 10 names’ total, and a name outside the table has no figure.

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