Mallie
A feminine name, a diminutive form of Amalia meaning "industrious" or "hardworking".
Name Census estimates that about 1,445 living Americans carry the first name Mallie. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 89.3% of registrations being female. The average person named Mallie today is around 30 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Mallie births was 1919 (69 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Mallie. 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 Mallie with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.4K
~ 1 in 237,200 Americans
Peak year
1919
69 babies that year
Average age
30
years old
1970 SSA rank
#3,062
Tracked since 1880
Census
Mallie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,375 people with the first name Mallie, which placed it at #9,894 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
#9,894
National first-name rank
People counted
1.4K
1,375 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
80.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Mallie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mallie is White at 80.9%. The next largest groups are Black (9.6%) and Two or More Races (4.1%). 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 Mallie 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 Mallie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White80.9% · 1,113
- Black or African American9.6% · 132
- Two or more races4.1% · 56
- Hispanic or Latino3.6% · 49
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.0% · 14
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 11
Gender
Gender distribution for Mallie
Mallie leans heavily female at 89.3% of total registrations, but 407 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Mallie as a male name
- Ranked #5,170 in 1970
- 5 male births in 1970
- Peak: 1928 (16 births)
Mallie as a female name
- Ranked #3,062 in 2024
- 53 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2022 (66 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Mallie leans strongly female. 1,244 people counted with this name were female (90.8%), compared with 126 male bearers (9.2%).
Popularity
Mallie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Mallie from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1910s, with 581 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1910s peak, Mallie remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Mallie 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 Mallie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Mallies live
The SSA's state-level files cover 11 states and territories. Kentucky, North Carolina, Alabama recorded the most babies named Mallie, while Louisiana, Florida, Georgia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 77 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Mallie
The name Mallie is believed to have its origins in the Scottish Gaelic language. It is thought to be a diminutive form of the name Mally, which itself is a pet name for the feminine name Mary. The earliest recorded use of the name Mallie dates back to the late 16th century in Scotland.
Mallie is derived from the Hebrew name Miryam, which means "beloved" or "bitter" depending on the interpretation. The name Mary, and its variations such as Mally and Mallie, were popularized in Europe after the rise of Christianity and the veneration of the Virgin Mary.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Mallie is found in the parish records of Kilwinning, Ayrshire, Scotland, where a Mallie Makgill was listed in 1592. In the 17th century, there is a record of a Mallie Cowane, who was a notable benefactor in the town of Stirling, Scotland, and is credited with founding the Cowane's Hospital in 1637.
In the 18th century, a Mallie Cochrane was born in 1745 in Ayrshire, Scotland. She later emigrated to the American colonies and settled in Pennsylvania. Another notable Mallie from this period was Mallie Macgregor, a Scottish Highland clan chief who lived from 1760 to 1836.
In the 19th century, one of the most famous individuals with the name Mallie was Mallie Baird, a Scottish poet and author who was born in 1802 in Ayrshire. Her works, which included poems and children's stories, were widely popular in her time.
Another notable Mallie from the 19th century was Mallie Campbell, a Scottish philanthropist and social reformer who lived from 1825 to 1910. She was a prominent figure in the temperance movement and worked tirelessly to improve the living conditions of the poor in Glasgow.
People
Mallie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Mallie 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
Mallie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Mallie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,445 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Mallie 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 237,200 US residents.
Is Mallie a common name?
We classify Mallie as "Rare". It ranks above 92.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,815 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Mallie most popular?
The single biggest year for Mallie was 1919, when 69 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Mallie is about 30 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Mallie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,375 people with the name Mallie, or 0.46 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #9,894 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 Mallie 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 Mallie?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Mallie leans strongly female. 1,244 people counted with this name were female (90.8%), compared with 126 male bearers (9.2%). 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 Mallie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mallie is White at 80.9%. The next largest groups are Black (9.6%) and Two or More Races (4.1%). 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 Mallie most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Mallie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 80.9% (1,113 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 Mallie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Mallie a female name?
Yes, 89.3% of people registered as Mallie in the SSA data are female. 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 Mallie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Mallie 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 Mallie 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 Mallie as a first name?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.