Mahlon
Hebrew masculine name derived from "mahlon" meaning "sickly" or "song".
Name Census estimates that about 3,028 living Americans carry the first name Mahlon. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Mahlon today is around 43 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Mahlon births was 1919 (95 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Mahlon. 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
3.0K
~ 1 in 113,195 Americans
Peak year
1919
95 babies that year
Average age
43
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,423
Tracked since 1880
Census
Mahlon in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,874 people with the first name Mahlon, which placed it at #5,788 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
#5,788
National first-name rank
People counted
2.9K
2,874 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
86.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Mahlon
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mahlon is White at 86.0%. The next largest groups are Black (8.8%) and Two or More Races (2.4%). 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 Mahlon 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 Mahlon at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White86.0% · 2,473
- Black or African American8.8% · 252
- Two or more races2.4% · 69
- Hispanic or Latino1.7% · 48
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 20
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.4% · 12
Gender
Gender distribution for Mahlon
Out of the 5,631 babies given the name Mahlon since 1880, 99.6% 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.
Mahlon as a male name
- Ranked #3,423 in 2024
- 34 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1919 (95 births)
Mahlon as a female name
- Ranked #14,459 in 2020
- 6 female births in 2020
- Peak: 2008 (6 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Mahlon leans strongly male. 2,789 people counted with this name were male (96.9%), compared with 88 female bearers (3.1%).
Popularity
Mahlon: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Mahlon from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 825 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Mahlon 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 Mahlon during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Mahlons live
The SSA's state-level files cover 19 states and territories. Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana recorded the most babies named Mahlon, while Virginia, Kansas, Illinois recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 100 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Mahlon
The given name Mahlon has its origins in the Hebrew language and culture, dating back to ancient times. It is derived from the Hebrew word "machalon," which means "sickly" or "frail." This name appears in the Bible, specifically in the Book of Ruth, where Mahlon is mentioned as one of the two sons of Elimelech and Naomi.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Mahlon was Mahlon, the biblical figure from the Book of Ruth. He lived during the period of the Judges, which was approximately between the 12th and 11th centuries BCE. In the biblical narrative, Mahlon and his brother Chilion married Moabite women, but both died childless in the land of Moab.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Mahlon. In the 19th century, Mahlon Dickerson (1770-1853) served as the 12th Governor of New Jersey from 1836 to 1837. He was also a United States Senator and a Judge of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey.
Another prominent figure was Mahlon Loomis (1826-1886), an American inventor and dentist. He is best known for his attempts to develop a wireless telegraph system, which he believed could transmit messages through the earth's atmosphere without the use of wires.
In the world of literature, Mahlon Blaine (1894-1969) was an American journalist and author. He wrote several books, including "Free Love and Heavenly Sinners" and "Plastics War," and worked as a screenwriter for various Hollywood studios.
The name Mahlon also appeared in the field of politics with Mahlon Pitney (1858-1924), an American jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1912 to 1922. He was appointed by President William Howard Taft.
Lastly, Mahlon Dickerson Sands (1911-1986) was an American chemist and inventor. He is credited with developing the first commercially successful polyethylene plastic, which revolutionized the plastics industry and had a significant impact on various industries and consumer products.
These individuals from different time periods and fields exemplify the rich history and diverse backgrounds associated with the given name Mahlon, which originated from ancient Hebrew roots and has been carried by notable figures throughout the centuries.
People
Mahlon + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Mahlon 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
Mahlon: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Mahlon?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,028 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Mahlon 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 113,195 US residents.
Is Mahlon a common name?
We classify Mahlon as "Rare". It ranks above 95.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 5,631 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Mahlon most popular?
The single biggest year for Mahlon was 1919, when 95 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Mahlon is about 43 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Mahlon in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,874 people with the name Mahlon, or 0.95 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,788 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 Mahlon 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 Mahlon?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Mahlon leans strongly male. 2,789 people counted with this name were male (96.9%), compared with 88 female bearers (3.1%). 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 Mahlon?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mahlon is White at 86.0%. The next largest groups are Black (8.8%) and Two or More Races (2.4%). 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 Mahlon most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Mahlon in the 2020 Census, accounting for 86.0% (2,473 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 Mahlon in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Mahlon a male name?
Yes, 99.6% of people registered as Mahlon 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 Mahlon still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Mahlon 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 Mahlon 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 share the name Mahlon?
Find out how many Americans are named Mahlon on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.