Malakai
Malakai was given to 1,657 boys in 2025, #213 among boys’ names; 17,887 Americans have been recorded with it since 1988 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 17,700 Americans named Malakai and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 7 years old and half are between 3 and 12.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Malakai by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Malakai mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Malakai is “a male given name of modern usage.”
Borrowed from Fijian Malakai and Tongan Malakai, equivalent to English Malachi.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Malakai?
#213 among boys’ names, 2025
Malakai rose from #491 in 2015 to #213 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 0.31 to 1.0 per 1,000.
1,657 babies in 2025, the peak
Malakai peaked in 2025, when 1,657 boys were given it, #213 among boys’ names. In 2024 it went to 1,545 boys.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 1,657 | #213 | 1.0 |
| 2024 | 1,545 | #232 | 0.90 |
| 2023 | 1,576 | #226 | 0.92 |
| 2022 | 1,527 | #231 | 0.87 |
| 2021 | 1,392 | #255 | 0.80 |
| 2020 | 1,187 | #285 | 0.69 |
| 2019 | 1,078 | #312 | 0.60 |
| 2018 | 839 | #383 | 0.46 |
| 2017 | 815 | #391 | 0.44 |
| 2016 | 732 | #427 | 0.39 |
Every recorded year (37)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 600 | #491 | 0.31 |
| 2014 | 545 | #514 | 0.28 |
| 2013 | 470 | #562 | 0.25 |
| 2012 | 454 | #569 | 0.24 |
| 2011 | 384 | #620 | 0.20 |
| 2010 | 443 | #574 | 0.23 |
| 2009 | 398 | #629 | 0.20 |
| 2008 | 395 | #626 | 0.19 |
| 2007 | 323 | #717 | 0.16 |
| 2006 | 296 | #729 | 0.14 |
| 2005 | 282 | #723 | 0.14 |
| 2004 | 236 | #767 | 0.12 |
| 2003 | 191 | #886 | 0.10 |
| 2002 | 180 | #899 | 0.09 |
| 2001 | 111 | #1,209 | 0.06 |
| 2000 | 31 | #2,893 | 0.02 |
| 1999 | 24 | #3,330 | 0.01 |
| 1998 | 30 | #2,753 | 0.02 |
| 1997 | 11 | #5,516 | 0.01 |
| 1996 | 19 | #3,625 | 0.01 |
| 1995 | 20 | #3,386 | 0.01 |
| 1994 | 6 | #8,395 | under 0.01 |
| 1993 | 8 | #6,604 | under 0.01 |
| 1992 | 5 | #9,302 | under 0.01 |
| 1991 | 6 | #7,867 | under 0.01 |
| 1990 | 7 | #6,884 | under 0.01 |
| 1988 | 7 | #6,191 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Malakai a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Malakai has been given almost only to boys: 57 girls in 37 years of records.
Girls and boys named Malakai: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Malakai, and how old are they?
17,700 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 17,887 Americans ever recorded as Malakai. The median Malakai alive today is 7 years old; half are between 3 and 12.
The 2020 Census counted 7,435 people named Malakai (60 women and girls, 7,375 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 9,197 born in the U.S. The Census count is 19% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 75 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 3,760 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 13,900 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
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).
Where are babies named Malakai born?
The states with the most babies named Malakai are California, Texas and Florida, with 34% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 231 | #170 | 1.2× |
| Texas | 200 | #192 | 0.9× |
| Florida | 128 | #175 | 1.2× |
| Ohio | 65 | #196 | 0.8× |
| North Carolina | 60 | #209 | 0.8× |
| New York | 50 | #357 | 0.5× |
| Pennsylvania | 50 | #245 | 0.8× |
| Georgia | 47 | #265 | 0.8× |
| Washington | 46 | #190 | 1.5× |
| Arizona | 46 | #190 | 1.3× |
Where Malakai is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Malakai is most over-represented in Hawaii: since 1988 it was given 2.7 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among boys’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Malakai with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 30,253 babies since 1880, Malakai is the most given (59% of them). In 2025 it was given to 1,657 of their 2,140 babies (77%), again the 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 Malakai
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 Malakai and names like it
- Compare Malakai and MalakiBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sMalakai peaked in 2025.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Malakai since 1910.
- The top names of 2025The year the most babies were named Malakai.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Malakai alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with MMost given first.