PETALING JAYA: Malaysia is growing in popularity in the United States - at least as a name - with more American parents choosing the country to name their baby girls compared to any other nation.

According to the Expat Go website, over 630 parents in the United States named their baby girls 'Malaysia' last year.

The site, which provide insights about Malaysia to expats living in and travelling to Malaysia, said that this was an increasing trend in the United States.

Data from the US social security administration showed that the 630 babies named 'Malaysia' were registered in 2013 alone, 570 in 2012 and 964 in 2011.

An online publication, Swimmingly, wrote that Malaysia was the most-popular country name and had been widely trending over the last three years.

The list, however, did not include countries like Jordan, Israel, Georgia and Chad as it was believed such names were not in direct reference to the countries.

Other popular country names included Kenya, America, India, Ireland and Holland.