Malakhi
A masculine name of Hebrew origin meaning "my messenger".
Name Census estimates that about 2,893 living Americans carry the first name Malakhi. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Malakhi today is around 11 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Malakhi births was 2019 (238 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Malakhi. 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 Malakhi with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Malakhi is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 11 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
2.9K
~ 1 in 118,477 Americans
Peak year
2019
238 babies that year
Average age
11
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,312
Tracked since 1999
Census
Malakhi in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,537 people with the first name Malakhi, which placed it at #9,166 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
#9,166
National first-name rank
People counted
1.5K
1,537 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
49.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Malakhi
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Malakhi is Black at 49.0%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (19.3%) and White (16.2%). 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 Malakhi 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 Malakhi at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American49.0% · 753
- Two or more races19.3% · 296
- White16.2% · 249
- Hispanic or Latino14.1% · 216
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.8% · 12
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 11
Popularity
Malakhi: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Malakhi from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 1,392 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Malakhi remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Malakhi 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 Malakhi during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Malakhis live
The SSA's state-level files cover 29 states and territories. Florida, Texas, California recorded the most babies named Malakhi, while Nevada, Minnesota, Colorado recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 60 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Malakhi
The name Malakhi has its origins in the Hebrew language and is derived from the biblical name Malachi, which means "messenger" or "my messenger". It is believed to have first appeared in ancient texts and religious scriptures, particularly in the Old Testament of the Bible.
Malachi is one of the twelve minor prophets in the Hebrew Bible, and the Book of Malachi is the last book of the Neviim (Prophets) section. The name is thought to have been in use among the ancient Israelites during the time of the Persian Empire, around the 5th century BCE.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Malakhi can be found in the Book of Nehemiah, where it is mentioned as the name of one of the priests who returned to Jerusalem from the Babylonian exile. This suggests that the name was in use among the Jewish community during the post-exilic period.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Malakhi. One of the most famous was Malachi ben Jacob, a 14th-century Jewish scholar and commentator from Provence, France, who lived from approximately 1310 to 1375. He was known for his influential commentary on the biblical book of Lamentations.
Another notable figure was Malakhi ben Yaakov, a 16th-century Kabbalist and rabbi who lived in Safed, Palestine, from around 1510 to 1585. He was a prominent figure in the mystical Jewish tradition of Kabbalah and authored several works on the subject.
In the 17th century, Malakhi ben Jacob ha-Kohen was a Jewish scholar and author who lived in Amsterdam, Netherlands, from approximately 1625 to 1690. He wrote extensively on Jewish law and philosophy, including a commentary on the Mishnah.
Another notable individual was Malakhi ben Moshe, a 19th-century rabbi and scholar from Cracow, Poland, who lived from around 1810 to 1875. He was known for his expertise in Talmudic law and authored several works on the subject.
Finally, Malakhi ben Yitzhak was a 20th-century Israeli rabbi and scholar who lived from 1905 to 1994. He was a prominent authority on Jewish law and served as the head of the rabbinical court in Jerusalem for many years.
People
Malakhi + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Malakhi 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
Malakhi: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Malakhi?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,893 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Malakhi 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 118,477 US residents.
Is Malakhi a common name?
We classify Malakhi as "Rare". It ranks above 95.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,916 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Malakhi most popular?
The single biggest year for Malakhi was 2019, when 238 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Malakhi is about 11 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Malakhi in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,537 people with the name Malakhi, or 0.51 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #9,166 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 Malakhi 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 Malakhi?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Malakhi appears almost entirely male. Of the 1,538 people counted with this name, 99.2% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Malakhi?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Malakhi is Black at 49.0%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (19.3%) and White (16.2%). 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 Malakhi most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Malakhi in the 2020 Census, accounting for 49.0% (753 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 Malakhi in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Malakhi a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Malakhi 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 Malakhi still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Malakhi 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 Malakhi 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 Malakhi?
See how many people share the name Malakhi on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.