Malaki
A masculine name of Arabic origin meaning "belonging to royalty".
Name Census estimates that about 4,585 living Americans carry the first name Malaki. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Malaki today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Malaki births was 2007 (278 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Malaki. 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 Malaki with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Malaki is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 14 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
4.6K
~ 1 in 74,756 Americans
Peak year
2007
278 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,386
Tracked since 1989
Census
Malaki in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,288 people with the first name Malaki, which placed it at #5,281 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
#5,281
National first-name rank
People counted
3.3K
3,288 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
34.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Malaki
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Malaki is White at 34.6%. The next largest groups are Black (22.5%) and Hispanic (20.0%). 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 Malaki 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 Malaki at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White34.6% · 1,139
- Black or African American22.5% · 740
- Hispanic or Latino20.0% · 659
- Two or more races18.8% · 617
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.2% · 72
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.9% · 61
Gender
Gender distribution for Malaki
Out of the 4,629 babies given the name Malaki since 1880, 99.9% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Malaki as a male name
- Ranked #1,386 in 2024
- 135 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2007 (278 births)
Malaki as a female name
- Ranked #18,522 in 2011
- 5 female births in 2011
- Peak: 2011 (5 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Malaki leans strongly male. 3,237 people counted with this name were male (98.6%), compared with 45 female bearers (1.4%).
Popularity
Malaki: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Malaki from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 1,941 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Malaki remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Malaki 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 Malaki during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Malakis live
The SSA's state-level files cover 35 states and territories. Texas, California, Florida recorded the most babies named Malaki, while Montana, Massachusetts, New Mexico recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 88 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Malaki
The name Malaki has its origins in the Hebrew language and culture, dating back to ancient biblical times. It is derived from the Hebrew word "mal'akh," which means "messenger" or "angel." The name is a variant of the biblical name Malachi, which was borne by one of the twelve minor prophets in the Old Testament.
In the Book of Malachi, the prophet Malachi is believed to have lived and prophesied during the 5th century BCE, after the Babylonian exile. His name, and by extension the name Malaki, is associated with the role of a divine messenger, conveying the word of God to the people of Israel.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Malaki can be found in the Dead Sea Scrolls, which are ancient Jewish religious manuscripts dating back to the 3rd century BCE to the 1st century CE. The name appears in various spellings, such as Malakiah and Malakiyah, further cementing its Hebrew origins.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Malaki. One of the most prominent was Malaki el-Amin, a 15th-century historian and scholar from the Mamluk Sultanate in Egypt. He authored several works on history, geography, and literature, and his writings provide valuable insights into the cultural and intellectual life of the time.
Another historical figure named Malaki was Malaki Iskandar, a 17th-century Ottoman diplomat and translator. He played a crucial role in facilitating communication and negotiations between the Ottoman Empire and various European powers, contributing to the exchange of knowledge and ideas during that era.
In the 18th century, Malaki Nazoor was a renowned Persian poet and calligrapher. His poetic works, written in the intricate Nasta'liq script, are celebrated for their beauty and eloquence, and he is considered one of the masters of Persian calligraphy.
Moving forward in time, Malaki Qurban was a 19th-century Azeri playwright and educator. His plays and works aimed to promote education and social reform, particularly in the Caucasus region, and he is regarded as a pioneering figure in Azeri literature.
Lastly, Malaki Tavian was a 20th-century Armenian painter and sculptor. His unique style, blending traditional Armenian motifs with modern artistic techniques, earned him recognition both in his homeland and internationally. His works can be found in various galleries and museums around the world.
People
Malaki + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Malaki 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
Malaki: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Malaki?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 4,585 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Malaki 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 74,756 US residents.
Is Malaki a common name?
We classify Malaki as "Rare". It ranks above 96.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,629 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Malaki most popular?
The single biggest year for Malaki was 2007, when 278 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Malaki is about 14 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Malaki in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,288 people with the name Malaki, or 1.09 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,281 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 Malaki 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 Malaki?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Malaki leans strongly male. 3,237 people counted with this name were male (98.6%), compared with 45 female bearers (1.4%). 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 Malaki?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Malaki is White at 34.6%. The next largest groups are Black (22.5%) and Hispanic (20.0%). 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 Malaki most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Malaki in the 2020 Census, accounting for 34.6% (1,139 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 Malaki in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Malaki a male name?
Yes, 99.9% of people registered as Malaki 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 Malaki still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Malaki 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 Malaki 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 the name Malaki?
For a quick modern take, check how many people have the name Malaki on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.