Malani is a distinctive girls' name in United States, ranking #9268 in 1996 with 9 recorded births. The name reached its all-time peak in 2024 with 938 births ranking #331. In 1996, approximately 1 in every 194,774 girls born was named Malani. STABLE Recent data shows the name is currently stable.
Malani appears to be a modern English name rather than a long traditional one. Behind the Name treats it as a possible Melanie variant shaped by the Hawaiian name element lani, which gives the name a more specific explanation than the earlier generic tropical wording.
The name fits a recent pattern of English-language names built by adapting familiar classics and blending them with sounds from Hawaiian-style names. That makes it modern and stylistic, but not simply invented from nowhere.