Entry № 6317 · Pashto origin

Malalai Malalai — Meaning, Origin & Baby Name Popularity

/ MAH-lah-lai /
Gender
Girl
Origin
Pashto
Meaning
"Sorrowful one; the Afghan heroine"
Syllables
3
First recorded
Modern (Pashto)

A name that means "sorrowful one; the afghan heroine".

Malalai is the name of the legendary Afghan heroine Malalai of Maiwand (c. The name means "sorrowful one" in Pashto.

Malala Yousafzai (born 1997), the Pakistani education activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was named for Malalai of Maiwand.

The Afghan heroine. Malala Yousafzai's namesake.

The name in its native script.

ملاله
Transliteration
Malalai
Pronunciation
/ ˈmɑː.lə.laɪ /
Root
Grammatical form

Where Malalai stands.

Malalai does not currently appear in the US Social Security Administration's top 1,000 girls' names, so we don't publish a US rank or birth count for it. That says nothing about the name's standing elsewhere in the world — only that it sits outside the ranked US data we rely on.

Malalais before her.

Real people
Malalai of Maiwand
Afghan heroine.
c. 1861 – 1880
Malala Yousafzai
Pakistani Nobel laureate.
born 1997
In fiction
Malalai
Common in Afghan literature.

Names connected to Malalai.

The number behind Malalai.

4

The Builder

In Pythagorean numerology the letters of Malalai reduce to 4, The Builder. This is a traditional interpretive system, not a factual claim about the name.