A friend of mine named her daughter Malia more than 4 years ago, before Obama burst onto the national scene. She just liked the sound of the name. And she and her husband are staunch Republicans.
Needless to say, she wants to punch people when they tease her that she named her daughter after Obamas kid.
LQ
I knew a Malia when I was a girl in California. The family had lived in Hawaii for several years, and they had two daughters with Hawaiian names.
I would never name a chile anything that contained the word, mal. It sounds like a disease or something worse.