Malikhi
A masculine name of Hebrew origin meaning "my king" or "my messenger".
Name Census estimates that about 299 living Americans carry the first name Malikhi. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Malikhi today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Malikhi births was 2009 (21 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Malikhi. 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.
People living today
299
~ 1 in 1,146,336 Americans
Peak year
2009
21 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
2024 SSA rank
#13,448
Tracked since 2002
Census
Malikhi in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 187 people with the first name Malikhi, which placed it at #40,012 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
#40,012
National first-name rank
People counted
187
187 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
47.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Malikhi
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Malikhi is Black at 47.1%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (22.5%) and White (14.4%). 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 Malikhi 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 Malikhi at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American47.1% · 88
- Two or more races22.5% · 42
- White14.4% · 27
- Hispanic or Latino14.4% · 27
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.1% · 2
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 1
Popularity
Malikhi: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Malikhi from the 2000s through to the 2020s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 139 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Malikhi remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Malikhi 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 Malikhi during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Malikhis live
Origin
Meaning and history of Malikhi
The name Malikhi is derived from the Hebrew language and has its origins in ancient Semitic cultures of the Middle East. It is a combination of two Hebrew words: "malak" meaning "king" or "angel," and "chi" meaning "life." Therefore, the name Malikhi can be interpreted as "king of life" or "angel of life."
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Malikhi can be found in the Bible, specifically in the Book of Nehemiah. Nehemiah 3:31 mentions a man named Malchijah, which is a variant spelling of Malikhi. This biblical reference suggests that the name was in use among ancient Israelites as early as the 5th century BCE.
In the Middle Ages, the name Malikhi was relatively uncommon but did appear in some historical records. One notable bearer of the name was Malikhi ibn al-Walid, an Arab mathematician and astronomer who lived in the 9th century CE. He made significant contributions to the development of trigonometry and the study of celestial mechanics.
During the Renaissance period, the name Malikhi gained some popularity among Jewish communities in Europe. One prominent figure with this name was Malikhi ben Yaakov, a 16th-century Kabbalist and scholar from Safed, Palestine (now Israel). He was known for his work in interpreting the mystical teachings of the Kabbalah.
In the 19th century, Malikhi was the name of a notable African-American abolitionist and activist. Malikhi Gibbs, born in 1810, was a former slave who became a prominent leader in the anti-slavery movement and worked alongside notable figures like Frederick Douglass.
Another famous bearer of the name Malikhi was Malikhi Andrews, an American lawyer and civil rights activist who lived from 1920 to 2008. He played a crucial role in the desegregation of public schools in the United States and worked tirelessly to advance the cause of racial equality.
While the name Malikhi has remained relatively uncommon throughout history, it has been carried by individuals from various cultural and ethnic backgrounds, each contributing to the rich tapestry of its meaning and significance.
People
Malikhi + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Malikhi 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
Malikhi: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Malikhi?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 299 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Malikhi 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 1,146,336 US residents.
Is Malikhi a common name?
We classify Malikhi as "Very Rare". It ranks above 79.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 302 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Malikhi most popular?
The single biggest year for Malikhi was 2009, when 21 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Malikhi 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 Malikhi in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 187 people with the name Malikhi, or 0.06 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #40,012 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 Malikhi 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 Malikhi?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Malikhi leans strongly male. 187 people counted with this name were male (98.9%), compared with 2 female bearers (1.1%). 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 Malikhi?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Malikhi is Black at 47.1%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (22.5%) and White (14.4%). 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 Malikhi most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Malikhi in the 2020 Census, accounting for 47.1% (88 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 Malikhi in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Malikhi a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Malikhi 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 Malikhi still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Malikhi 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 Malikhi 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 are called Malikhi?
Find out how many people share the name Malikhi on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.