Malcome
A Scottish Gaelic name derived from the Gaelic words "mal" (disciple) and "colm" (dove).
Name Census estimates that about 56 living Americans carry the first name Malcome. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Malcome today is around 49 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Malcome births was 1988 (9 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Malcome. 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.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Malcome. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
56
~ 1 in 6,120,613 Americans
Peak year
1988
9 babies that year
Average age
49
years old
1994 SSA rank
#6,760
Tracked since 1917
Census
Malcome in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 209 people with the first name Malcome, which placed it at #37,369 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
#37,369
National first-name rank
People counted
209
209 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
50.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Malcome
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Malcome is Black at 50.7%. The next largest groups are White (38.3%) and Hispanic (3.3%). 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 Malcome 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 Malcome at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American50.7% · 106
- White38.3% · 80
- Hispanic or Latino3.3% · 7
- Two or more races3.3% · 7
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.4% · 5
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.9% · 4
Popularity
Malcome: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Malcome from the 1910s through to the 1990s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 24 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Malcome 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 Malcome during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Malcome
The name Malcome has its roots in the Old English language and is derived from the words "mal" meaning "cross" and "colm" meaning "dove." It was originally a surname that emerged in the 11th century during the Norman conquest of England.
In the 12th century, the name Malcome appeared in the Domesday Book, a manuscript record of landholders in England commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. This early reference suggests the name was in use among the Anglo-Saxon population before the Norman invasion.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Malcome was Malcome of Monmouth, a 12th-century Benedictine monk and historian known for his influential work "Historia Regum Britanniae" (History of the Kings of Britain). This text, written around 1136, helped popularize the Arthurian legends and provided a pseudo-historical account of British history from the Trojan War to the 7th century.
In the 13th century, the name Malcome appeared in the Pipe Rolls of Northumberland, a collection of financial records from the English Exchequer. This suggests the name was in use among the nobility and gentry during this period.
During the Scottish Wars of Independence in the late 13th and early 14th centuries, Malcome was a common name among Scottish warriors and nobles. One notable figure was Sir Malcome Fleming, a Scottish knight who fought alongside William Wallace and Robert the Bruce in their struggle against English rule.
Another famous bearer of the name was Malcome X (1925-1965), an influential African-American Muslim minister and human rights activist. Born Malcolm Little, he later changed his surname to "X" to represent his unknown African ancestral surname that was lost during the era of slavery.
Other notable individuals with the name Malcome include Malcome Muggeridge (1903-1990), an English satirist, author, and journalist; Malcome McDowell (born 1943), a British actor known for his roles in "A Clockwork Orange" and "Caligula"; and Malcome Young (1953-2017), a Scottish singer-songwriter and co-founder of the rock band AC/DC.
People
Malcome + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Malcome 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
Malcome: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Malcome?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 56 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Malcome 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 6,120,613 US residents.
Is Malcome a common name?
We classify Malcome as "Very Rare". It ranks above 56% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 96 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Malcome most popular?
The single biggest year for Malcome was 1988, when 9 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Malcome is about 49 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Malcome in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 209 people with the name Malcome, or 0.07 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #37,369 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 Malcome 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 Malcome?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Malcome leans strongly male. 207 people counted with this name were male (98.1%), compared with 4 female bearers (1.9%). 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 Malcome?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Malcome is Black at 50.7%. The next largest groups are White (38.3%) and Hispanic (3.3%). 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 Malcome most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Malcome in the 2020 Census, accounting for 50.7% (106 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 Malcome in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Malcome a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Malcome 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 Malcome still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Malcome 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 Malcome 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 Malcome?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.