Nala

femaleStatistical record

What official birth registration shows about Nala: which national registrars published it, in which years, and how its recorded position changed.

No researched meaning, origin or pronunciation yet — what that means.

Nala: Recorded since 1996, it reached #428 in 2021, and it stood at #590 in 2025.

2registrars recorded it
21times a registrar ranked it
30years from first to last
#428highest recorded position

Region

Rising

among girls in England and Wales · 1996–2025

View as table

England and Wales · Girls rank by year
Year	Rank
1996	#3795
2004	#3197
2005	#3970
2008	#3860
2011	#4049
2012	#2338
2013	#1433
2014	#1562
2015	#775
2016	#994
2017	#949
2018	#729
2019	#554
2020	#436
2021	#428
2022	#442
2023	#451
2024	#647
2025	#590

VerifiedSource: Office for National Statistics — Baby Names in England and Wales.Confidence: high.

See all England and Wales names · Source: Office for National Statistics — Baby Names in England and Wales

What the data shows

RisingEngland and Wales · Girls

Recorded in official data among girls in England and Wales in 19 of the 30 years from 1996 to 2025.

In 2025: #590 among girls in England and Wales, #885 among girls in Republic of Ireland.

Official data from 2 national registrars across 2 regions, 1996–2025 · Office for National Statistics. Data sources

Popularity journey

First recorded1996
First recorded at #3795 among girls in England and Wales in 1996 — the earliest year that source publishes this name, not necessarily the earliest it was used.
England and Wales · Girls
Highest recorded1996–2025
Highest recorded position: #428 among girls in England and Wales, in 2021 (recorded 1996–2025).
England and Wales · Girls
Most recent2025
Most recently recorded at #590 among girls in England and Wales, in 2025.
England and Wales · Girls

Nala appears in 2 of the published lists Namewise holds. The longest record is England and Wales · Girls, which has ranked it in 19 years beginning in 1996, and has registered 835 births with the name.

Nala across 2 official records

Each registrar publishes its own list, so these figures are read down a row, never across one. A position in one country is not comparable with a position in another, and Namewise never combines them into a single ranking. The birth counts do not compare across rows either, for a different reason: England and Wales registers roughly thirty times as many births a year as Northern Ireland, so a larger total says which registrar recorded it as much as how widely the name was given.

Nala's first, highest and most recent recorded position in each official list, with the number of births each registrar registered with the name and its largest single year
Published list	First recorded	Highest	Most recent	Years recorded	Births registered	Most in one year
England and Wales · Girls	#3795 (1996)	#428 (2021)	#590 (2025)	19 of 30	835 (1996–2025)	102 (2021)
Republic of Ireland · Girls	#905 (2022)	#885 (2025)	#885 (2025)	2 of 4	6 (2022–2025)	3 (2022)

Nala by decade in England and Wales · Girls

Births registered with the name in each decade of this one list, with the number of years the list covers in that decade. Bars are scaled on births a year, which is the figure that compares between decades — a decade the list only partly covers has a smaller total without being a quieter decade. Figures belong to this registrar alone and do not carry to another.

Births registered with Nala in England and Wales · Girls, by decade, with years covered and the average per year
Decade	Births registered	Years covered	A year
1990s	3	1 of 10	3
2000s	14	3 of 10	5
2010s	309	9 of 10	34
2020sbusiest	509	6 of 10	85

Across England and Wales · Girls, the 2020s were its busiest decade — the 6 years of it this list covers, averaging 85 births a year.

Its sharpest single-year move came between 2014 and 2015, when recorded births rose by 31, from 19 to 50.

See the names England and Waleshas recorded the most births with →

Popularity data

Official popularity data is available for 2 regions, from 1996 to 2025. Highest recorded position: #428 in England and Wales in 2021.

Nala's recorded popularity observations by year, region and administrative category, including rank, registered births, source confidence and when each region's data was last reviewed.
Year	Region	Category	Rank	Births registered	Confidence	Status
2025	England and Wales	female	#590	66	High	Verified
2024	England and Wales	female	#647	60	High	Verified
2023	England and Wales	female	#451	88	High	Verified
2022	England and Wales	female	#442	96	High	Verified
2021	England and Wales	female	#428	102	High	Verified
2020	England and Wales	female	#436	97	High	Verified
2019	England and Wales	female	#554	73	High	Verified
2018	England and Wales	female	#729	54	High	Verified
2017	England and Wales	female	#949	39	High	Verified
2016	England and Wales	female	#994	36	High	Verified
2015	England and Wales	female	#775	50	High	Verified
2014	England and Wales	female	#1562	19	High	Verified
2013	England and Wales	female	#1433	22	High	Verified
2012	England and Wales	female	#2338	11	High	Verified
2011	England and Wales	female	#4049	5	High	Verified
2008	England and Wales	female	#3860	5	High	Verified
2005	England and Wales	female	#3970	4	High	Verified
2004	England and Wales	female	#3197	5	High	Verified
1996	England and Wales	female	#3795	3	High	Verified
2025	Republic of Ireland	female	#885	3	High	Verified
2022	Republic of Ireland	female	#905	3	High	Verified

England and Wales hub — collected by Office for National Statistics
Republic of Ireland hub — collected by CSO Ireland

See methodology and data sources for how popularity data is collected and what "confidence" means.

Where Nala is officially recorded

2 official registrars have recorded Nala, between 1996 and 2025, in 19 of those 30 years. Each registrar publishes for its own population on its own methodology, so the positions below are each one country's own ranking and are not comparable with one another.

Registrar	Recorded	Years	Its own highest position
England and Wales	1996–2025	19	#428 in 2021
Republic of Ireland	2022–2025	2	#885 in 2025

No registrar recorded it for 7 years after 1996; it appears again in 2004.

What the record shows

Recorded by 2 registrars between 1996 and 2025, ranked in 19 years of that period.

Its highest recorded position is #428, first reached in 2021.

Its largest count from any one registrar is 102 births, registered in England and Wales in 2021.

Its record falls into 4 separate stretches, with a longest absence of 7 years.

A second registrar first ranked it in 2022, and 26 years separate the first registrar to record it from the last.

Every figure here is counted from the seven official registrars Namewise holds. A position is only ever a place within the list that published it, and a record that thins or stops is a fact about what registrars printed — never about how many children received the name.

Where to go next

Records with a comparable body of evidence, so the catalogue can be read outward from this one. Each group states the rule it was selected by.

Next in the catalogue

The records either side of this one alphabetically.

Naksh · #1324, 14y
Nakshatra · #3148, 10y
Nalah · #2040, 11y
Nalani · #1603, 20y

A comparable record

Records held by the same 2 registrars, over a similar number of ranked years, whose highest position is closest to this one. A similar body of evidence — never a claim that the names themselves are alike.

Atharv · #429, 20y
Gracjan · #429, 17y
Arminas · #430, 15y
Casey-Leigh · #426, 22y

Also first recorded in the 1990s

Records whose earliest ranking in Namewise's registrar data also falls between 1990 and 1999.

Jermaine · #428, 30y
Saira · #428, 30y
Adeel · #427, 30y
Gianluca · #427, 30y

Nala was ranked #428 in England and Wales · Girls in 2021. These are the names immediately either side of it on that published list — a fact about the registrar's own output, not a similarity judgement.

Bella-Rose#423
Margo#427
Anais#428
Blake#428
Aayat#431
Aiyla#431
Alicja#431
Anayah#431

What's not yet available

Meaning
Origin
Pronunciation
Nicknames and spelling variants

Absence from this list does not mean the name isn't genuinely meaningful or widely used — only that Namewise hasn't sourced and reviewed that content yet. Absence from a specific year or geography above does not prove zero use there either; official statistics only publish names above a minimum threshold.

Official popularity data is available for 2 regions, from 1996 to 2025. Highest recorded position: #428 in England and Wales in 2021. Source data last verified 2026-07-21.

Nala

Nala at a glance

What the data shows

Popularity journey

Nala across 2 official records

Nala by decade in England and Wales · Girls

Popularity data

Where Nala is officially recorded

What the record shows

Where to go next

Next in the catalogue

A comparable record

Also first recorded in the 1990s

Names published alongside Nala

Nala at a glance

Nala across 2 official records

Nala by decade in England and Wales · Girls

What the record shows

Where to go next

Next in the catalogue

A comparable record

Also first recorded in the 1990s

Names published alongside Nala