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Official JPN data

Popular names of the 1950s

Six JPN tables for births in the 1950s: 10 boys’ and 10 girls’ names in each of the Malay, Chinese and Indian tables. Percentages are each name’s share of its table’s top-10 total; badges compare places with the 1940s.

Top boy (Malay)
Ismail
Top girl (Malay)
Fatimah
New entries (of 60)
17
Biggest climb
Azizah ▲5

Popular names of the 1950s · Malaysia

The six JPN tables

Malay table · boys

  1. 1.Ismail 18.2% Same place
  2. 2.Ahmad 14% Same place
  3. 3.Abdullah 11.1% Same place
  4. 4.Ibrahim 9.9% Same place
  5. 5.Ramli 8.8% New to the top 10
  6. 6.Zakaria 8.7% Up 2 places (from #8)
  7. 7.Othman 8.6% Down 2 places (from #5)
  8. 8.Mohamad 8.5% Down 2 places (from #6)
  9. 9.Abu Bakar 7.1% Down 2 places (from #7)
  10. 10.Abdul Rahman 5.0% Down 1 places (from #9)
Top-10 total: 43,880.

Malay table · girls

  1. 1.Fatimah 18.1% Same place
  2. 2.Azizah 13.4% Up 5 places (from #7)
  3. 3.Rokiah 10.1% Up 2 places (from #5)
  4. 4.Zainab 9.9% Down 2 places (from #2)
  5. 5.Hasnah 9.4% Up 4 places (from #9)
  6. 6.Rohani 9.1% New to the top 10
  7. 7.Ramlah 8.1% Down 3 places (from #4)
  8. 8.Hamidah 7.9% New to the top 10
  9. 9.Halimah 7.4% Down 6 places (from #3)
  10. 10.Salmah 6.6% New to the top 10
Top-10 total: 59,666.

Chinese table · boys

  1. 1.Lee 14.5% Up 1 places (from #2)
  2. 2.Wong 13.6% Up 1 places (from #3)
  3. 3.Tan 12.5% Down 2 places (from #1)
  4. 4.Ah Kow 11.4% New to the top 10
  5. 5.Lim 11.1% Down 1 places (from #4)
  6. 6.Chong 9.9% Down 1 places (from #5)
  7. 7.Chee Keong 7.2% New to the top 10
  8. 8.Ng 7.1% Down 2 places (from #6)
  9. 9.Ah Lek 6.5% New to the top 10
  10. 10.Chan 6.2% Down 3 places (from #7)
Top-10 total: 9,007.

Chinese table · girls

  1. 1.Ah Moi 17.6% Up 5 places (from #6)
  2. 2.Ah Mooi 13.1% New to the top 10
  3. 3.Tan 10.7% Down 2 places (from #1)
  4. 4.Lim 10.1% Down 1 places (from #3)
  5. 5.Lee 10.0% Down 3 places (from #2)
  6. 6.Siew Lan 8.5% New to the top 10
  7. 7.Wong 8.5% Down 3 places (from #4)
  8. 8.Siew Eng 7.5% New to the top 10
  9. 9.Ah Moy 7.1% Same place
  10. 10.Ah Lan 6.9% New to the top 10
Top-10 total: 12,796.

Indian table · boys

  1. 1.Subramaniam 27.7% Same place
  2. 2.Krishnan 14.8% Up 1 places (from #3)
  3. 3.Muniandy 14.2% Down 1 places (from #2)
  4. 4.Arumugam 9.7% Up 1 places (from #5)
  5. 5.Balakrishnan 9.2% Up 1 places (from #6)
  6. 6.Ramasamy 6.5% Down 2 places (from #4)
  7. 7.Raman 5.4% Same place
  8. 8.Munusamy 4.6% Up 2 places (from #10)
  9. 9.Ramachandran 4.1% New to the top 10
  10. 10.Maniam 4.0% New to the top 10
Top-10 total: 6,691.

Indian table · girls

  1. 1.Muniamah 18.1% Same place
  2. 2.Saroja 16.9% Up 1 places (from #3)
  3. 3.Saraswathy 15.7% Up 1 places (from #4)
  4. 4.Letchumy 11.9% Down 2 places (from #2)
  5. 5.Kamala 8.7% New to the top 10
  6. 6.Devi 6.2% New to the top 10
  7. 7.Parvathy 6.1% Up 2 places (from #9)
  8. 8.Susila 5.5% New to the top 10
  9. 9.Mariayee 5.5% Down 2 places (from #7)
  10. 10.Nagamah 5.4% New to the top 10
Top-10 total: 5,670.

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

Dropped out of the top 10 (17)

Names listed in the 1940s but not in the same table in the 1950s. The number is the place they held in the 1940s.

Malay table · boys

Malay table · girls

Chinese table · boys

Chinese table · girls

Indian table · boys

Indian table · girls

Generations: the 1950s vs the 1980s

How many names in each 1950s table were still listed 30 years later.

Malay · boys
1 / 10 (Ismail)
Malay · girls
0 / 10
Chinese · boys
1 / 10 (Chee Keong)
Chinese · girls
0 / 10
Indian · boys
1 / 10 (Muniandy)
Indian · girls
1 / 10 (Saraswathy)
Compare generations →

The Malay, Chinese and Indian tables are JPN’s own breakdown of the data. They describe the data, not people: anyone can bear the same name. In the Chinese tables the published entry is often a surname. Print this page for a six-table A4 poster. Source: JPN via data.gov.my (CC BY 4.0)

More from the JPN data

How to cite

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

MalaysianNames (malaysiannames.com). “Popular Names in Malaysia, 1950s: JPN Rankings”. https://malaysiannames.com/en/popular-names/decade/1950/. 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

What does the NEW badge mean?

The name was not in the same table’s top 10 for the 1940s. It does not mean nobody bore the name before.

Why percentages, not counts?

Top-10 totals change a lot between decades and tables, so a share of that total compares more fairly. Raw counts show beside the percentage on wide screens.

Why is my name missing?

JPN publishes only the top 10 names per sex in each table. A name outside that list has no public figure, and we do not estimate one.