Malachy
Masculine name of Irish origin meaning "tonsured one" or "bald".
Name Census estimates that about 617 living Americans carry the first name Malachy. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Malachy today is around 21 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Malachy births was 2002 (35 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Malachy. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Malachy with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
617
~ 1 in 555,518 Americans
Peak year
2002
35 babies that year
Average age
21
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,054
Tracked since 1897
Census
Malachy in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 695 people with the first name Malachy, which placed it at #16,280 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#16,280
National first-name rank
People counted
695
695 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
73.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Malachy
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Malachy is White at 73.4%. The next largest groups are Black (10.9%) and Hispanic (7.5%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Malachy described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Malachy at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White73.4% · 510
- Black or African American10.9% · 76
- Hispanic or Latino7.5% · 52
- Two or more races6.2% · 43
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.7% · 12
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 2
Popularity
Malachy: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Malachy from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 241 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Malachy remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Malachy by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Malachy during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Malachys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. New York, California, Illinois recorded the most babies named Malachy, while Illinois, California, New York recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 18 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Malachy
The name Malachy has its origins in the Irish Gaelic language. It derives from the Old Irish name Maelshechnaill, which is composed of the elements "mael" meaning "tonsured" or "devoted to" and "sechnaill" meaning "descendant of Sechnall". Sechnall was an Irish saint who lived in the 5th century and was one of the earliest Christian missionaries in Ireland.
Malachy is an Anglicized form of the Gaelic name that became more common in the English-speaking world. The name has been used in Ireland for centuries and has strong historical and religious ties to the country. It has also been adopted as a name in other parts of the British Isles and in regions with significant Irish communities.
One of the earliest and most notable figures with the name Malachy was Saint Malachy, an Irish monk who lived from 1094 to 1148. He was a renowned scholar and reformer who served as the Archbishop of Armagh, the ecclesiastical capital of Ireland. Saint Malachy is credited with reviving the church in Ireland and is remembered for his efforts to combat corruption and promote monastic reforms.
Another historical figure with the name Malachy was Malachy Postlethwayt, an English writer and economist who lived from 1707 to 1767. He was a prolific author and wrote extensively on topics related to trade, commerce, and economics. His works, such as "The Universal Dictionary of Trade and Commerce" and "Britain's Commercial Interest Explained and Improved", were influential in their time.
In the 19th century, Malachy Hitchins, an English painter and illustrator, was born in 1808 and lived until 1881. He was known for his landscapes and illustrations, particularly those depicting rural life in England.
Malachy Conroy was an Irish Catholic priest and activist who lived from 1828 to 1905. He was a prominent figure in the Irish nationalist movement and worked to promote the rights of Irish Catholics in the United States, where he spent much of his life.
More recently, Malachy Tallack, a Scottish writer and journalist, was born in 1983. He is known for his non-fiction works that explore themes of identity, place, and the natural world, such as "The Valley at the Centre of the World" and "The Un-Discovered Islands".
People
Malachy + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Malachy as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with M
Other first names starting with M with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Malachy: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Malachy?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 617 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Malachy going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 555,518 US residents.
Is Malachy a common name?
We classify Malachy as "Very Rare". It ranks above 86.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 681 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Malachy most popular?
The single biggest year for Malachy was 2002, when 35 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Malachy is about 21 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Malachy in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 695 people with the name Malachy, or 0.23 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #16,280 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Malachy in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Malachy?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Malachy leans strongly male. 683 people counted with this name were male (97.7%), compared with 16 female bearers (2.3%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Malachy?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Malachy is White at 73.4%. The next largest groups are Black (10.9%) and Hispanic (7.5%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Malachy most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Malachy in the 2020 Census, accounting for 73.4% (510 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Malachy in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Malachy a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Malachy in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Malachy still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Malachy in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Malachy can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have Malachy as a first name?
If you just want to know how many people have the name Malachy, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.