Maliyah

Maliyah is an elaborated spelling variant of Malia, itself the Hawaiian and Swahili adaptation of Mary, which derives from the Hebrew Miryam, a name of debated meaning that is commonly associated with roots suggesting beloved, sea of bitterness, or drop of the sea. The Hawaiian form gained wider use across the United States in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries as parents sought phonetically distinctive spellings. Related forms include Malia, Maria, Mariah, and Miriam.