Malachy
Malachy was given to 9 boys in 2025, #8,661 among boys’ names; 690 Americans have been recorded with it since 1897 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Malachy by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Malachy mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Malachy is “a male given name from Irish.”
From Irish Maolmhaodhóg and Maolseachnaill/Maolseachlainn, influenced by the etymologically unrelated name Malachi, which is of Hebrew origin.
/ˈmæləki/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Malachy?
#8,661 among boys’ names, 2025
Malachy fell from #6,180 in 2015 to #8,661 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 7.3 to 5.3 per million.
35 babies in 2002, the peak
Malachy peaked in 2002, when 35 boys were given it, #2,728 among boys’ names. The 9 births of 2025 are 26% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 9 | #8,661 | 5.3 |
| 2024 | 15 | #6,074 | 8.7 |
| 2023 | 18 | #5,387 | 10.5 |
| 2022 | 18 | #5,343 | 10.3 |
| 2021 | 16 | #5,688 | 9.1 |
| 2020 | 20 | #4,799 | 11.6 |
| 2019 | 16 | #5,707 | 8.9 |
| 2018 | 11 | #7,436 | 6.1 |
| 2017 | 18 | #5,221 | 9.7 |
| 2016 | 24 | #4,270 | 12.6 |
Every recorded year (53)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 14 | #6,180 | 7.3 |
| 2014 | 19 | #4,990 | 9.9 |
| 2013 | 19 | #4,903 | 10.0 |
| 2012 | 11 | #7,361 | 5.8 |
| 2011 | 15 | #5,848 | 7.9 |
| 2010 | 27 | #3,865 | 14.1 |
| 2009 | 17 | #5,462 | 8.6 |
| 2008 | 25 | #4,098 | 12.3 |
| 2007 | 27 | #3,857 | 13.0 |
| 2006 | 22 | #4,315 | 10.7 |
| 2005 | 19 | #4,572 | 9.5 |
| 2004 | 21 | #4,204 | 10.6 |
| 2003 | 31 | #3,081 | 15.7 |
| 2002 | 35 | #2,728 | 18.0 |
| 2001 | 28 | #3,190 | 14.4 |
| 2000 | 16 | #4,705 | 8.1 |
| 1999 | 16 | #4,469 | 8.3 |
| 1998 | 13 | #5,070 | 6.8 |
| 1997 | 9 | #6,417 | 4.8 |
| 1995 | 7 | #7,488 | 3.7 |
| 1994 | 7 | #7,454 | 3.6 |
| 1993 | 6 | #8,280 | 3.1 |
| 1987 | 5 | #7,687 | 2.7 |
| 1986 | 6 | #6,417 | 3.3 |
| 1984 | 5 | #6,947 | 2.8 |
| 1983 | 5 | #6,911 | 2.8 |
| 1979 | 8 | #4,675 | 4.6 |
| 1971 | 9 | #3,552 | 5.1 |
| 1968 | 5 | #4,514 | 2.9 |
| 1961 | 6 | #3,899 | 2.8 |
| 1957 | 7 | #3,440 | 3.2 |
| 1950 | 6 | #3,546 | 3.4 |
| 1947 | 8 | #3,015 | 4.4 |
| 1938 | 6 | #3,395 | 5.4 |
| 1931 | 5 | #4,119 | 4.8 |
| 1930 | 5 | #4,336 | 4.6 |
| 1926 | 5 | #4,580 | 4.5 |
| 1925 | 5 | #4,639 | 4.5 |
| 1921 | 5 | #4,730 | 4.5 |
| 1920 | 5 | #4,701 | 4.7 |
| 1918 | 5 | #4,554 | 4.9 |
| 1914 | 5 | #3,568 | 7.6 |
| 1897 | 5 | #1,168 | 44.3 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Malachy a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Malachy has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 53 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Malachy: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Malachy, and how old are they?
An estimated 619 Americans named Malachy and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (90% of everyone recorded); the median is 19 years old and half are between 10 and 25. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 699 people named Malachy (16 women and girls, 683 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 538 born in the U.S. The Census count is 30% above that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
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 5 names spelled alike, given to 68,803 babies since 1880, Malachy is the third most given (1.0% of them). In 2025 it was given to 9 of their 2,770 babies (<1%), again the third 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.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Malachy
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Malachy and names like it
- Compare Malachy and MalachiBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sMalachy peaked in 2002.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Malachy since 1910.
- Irish namesWiktionary’s origin for Malachy: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2002The year the most babies were named Malachy.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Malachy alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with MMost given first.