Mal
Mal was given to 8 boys in 2025, #9,399 among boys’ names; 343 Americans have been recorded with it since 1880 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Mal by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Mal mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Mal is “a short form of given names such as Mallory, Malcolm etc.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Mal?
#9,399 among boys’ names, 2025
Mal entered the boys’ rankings after 2015 and stood at #9,399 in 2025.
13 babies in 1950, the peak
Mal peaked in 1950, when 13 boys were given it, #2,162 among boys’ names. The 8 births of 2025 are 62% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 8 | #9,399 | 4.7 |
| 2024 | 6 | #11,832 | 3.5 |
| 2022 | 7 | #10,458 | 4.0 |
| 2021 | 6 | #11,623 | 3.4 |
| 2020 | 7 | #10,193 | 4.1 |
| 2019 | 7 | #10,416 | 3.9 |
| 2012 | 5 | #13,478 | 2.6 |
| 2008 | 5 | #13,824 | 2.5 |
| 1969 | 6 | #4,225 | 3.4 |
| 1966 | 8 | #3,150 | 4.5 |
Every recorded year (50)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1963 | 6 | #3,879 | 3.0 |
| 1962 | 8 | #3,200 | 3.9 |
| 1961 | 6 | #3,898 | 2.8 |
| 1960 | 5 | #4,390 | 2.3 |
| 1959 | 9 | #2,967 | 4.2 |
| 1958 | 10 | #2,745 | 4.7 |
| 1957 | 8 | #3,164 | 3.7 |
| 1956 | 5 | #4,270 | 2.4 |
| 1955 | 5 | #4,193 | 2.4 |
| 1954 | 9 | #2,876 | 4.4 |
| 1953 | 5 | #4,145 | 2.5 |
| 1952 | 11 | #2,452 | 5.7 |
| 1951 | 9 | #2,789 | 4.8 |
| 1950 | 13 | #2,162 | 7.3 |
| 1949 | 6 | #3,561 | 3.4 |
| 1948 | 7 | #3,198 | 4.0 |
| 1947 | 8 | #3,014 | 4.4 |
| 1946 | 6 | #3,393 | 3.7 |
| 1945 | 5 | #3,601 | 3.7 |
| 1944 | 7 | #3,020 | 5.1 |
| 1943 | 8 | #2,869 | 5.6 |
| 1942 | 7 | #3,104 | 5.1 |
| 1941 | 9 | #2,588 | 7.3 |
| 1940 | 6 | #3,337 | 5.2 |
| 1938 | 10 | #2,421 | 9.0 |
| 1937 | 6 | #3,379 | 5.6 |
| 1936 | 5 | #3,868 | 4.8 |
| 1935 | 6 | #3,500 | 5.8 |
| 1933 | 8 | #2,897 | 8.1 |
| 1930 | 7 | #3,478 | 6.4 |
| 1929 | 6 | #3,804 | 5.6 |
| 1926 | 5 | #4,579 | 4.5 |
| 1921 | 5 | #4,729 | 4.5 |
| 1919 | 6 | #4,006 | 6.1 |
| 1918 | 5 | #4,553 | 4.9 |
| 1915 | 7 | #3,266 | 8.2 |
| 1913 | 5 | #3,093 | 9.8 |
| 1912 | 7 | #2,168 | 16.3 |
| 1883 | 5 | #991 | 47.8 |
| 1880 | 7 | #785 | 63.4 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Mal a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Mal has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 50 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Mal: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Mal, and how old are they?
An estimated 171 Americans named Mal and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (50% of everyone recorded); the median is 67 years old and half are between 14 and 75. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 1,716 people named Mal (497 women and girls, 1,219 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 168 born in the U.S. The Census count is 10.2 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census records the name people give, which for many is the short form Mal rather than the name on their birth record, and it counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Names spelled alike
Of these 3 names spelled alike, given to 1,753 babies since 1880, Mal is the second most given (20% of them). In 2025 it was given to 8 of their 209 babies (3.8%), again the second most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
More about Mal and names like it
- Compare Mal and MaelBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1950sMal peaked in 1950.
- The top names of 1950The year the most babies were named Mal.
- The names of the Baby BoomersMost people named Mal alive today were born 1946-1964.
- Names starting with MMost given first.