Malek
Malek was given to 121 boys in 2025, #1,472 among boys’ names; 3,092 Americans have been recorded with it since 1974 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 3,040 Americans named Malek and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 15 years old and half are between 7 and 24.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Malek by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Malek?
#1,472 among boys’ names, 2025
Malek rose from #2,011 in 2015 to #1,472 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 37.6 to 70.8 per million.
151 babies in 2023, the peak
Malek peaked in 2023, when 151 boys were given it, #1,278 among boys’ names. The 121 births of 2025 are 80% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 121 | #1,472 | 70.8 |
| 2024 | 128 | #1,430 | 74.3 |
| 2023 | 151 | #1,278 | 88.3 |
| 2022 | 118 | #1,529 | 67.6 |
| 2021 | 118 | #1,511 | 67.4 |
| 2020 | 125 | #1,393 | 72.4 |
| 2019 | 130 | #1,377 | 72.5 |
| 2018 | 100 | #1,636 | 55.1 |
| 2017 | 93 | #1,702 | 50.2 |
| 2016 | 95 | #1,670 | 50.1 |
Every recorded year (50)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 72 | #2,011 | 37.6 |
| 2014 | 96 | #1,622 | 50.0 |
| 2013 | 83 | #1,758 | 43.9 |
| 2012 | 97 | #1,611 | 51.1 |
| 2011 | 81 | #1,789 | 42.6 |
| 2010 | 77 | #1,874 | 40.1 |
| 2009 | 98 | #1,622 | 49.4 |
| 2008 | 88 | #1,729 | 43.1 |
| 2007 | 69 | #2,027 | 33.2 |
| 2006 | 71 | #1,907 | 34.5 |
| 2005 | 84 | #1,625 | 42.1 |
| 2004 | 71 | #1,773 | 35.8 |
| 2003 | 71 | #1,724 | 35.9 |
| 2002 | 72 | #1,654 | 37.1 |
| 2001 | 82 | #1,491 | 42.2 |
| 2000 | 74 | #1,595 | 37.7 |
| 1999 | 72 | #1,547 | 37.5 |
| 1998 | 73 | #1,505 | 38.2 |
| 1997 | 75 | #1,446 | 39.8 |
| 1996 | 75 | #1,408 | 39.6 |
| 1995 | 58 | #1,591 | 30.5 |
| 1994 | 45 | #1,877 | 23.3 |
| 1993 | 48 | #1,778 | 24.5 |
| 1992 | 23 | #2,959 | 11.5 |
| 1991 | 13 | #4,377 | 6.4 |
| 1990 | 23 | #2,830 | 11.2 |
| 1989 | 14 | #3,932 | 7.0 |
| 1988 | 10 | #4,637 | 5.2 |
| 1987 | 12 | #3,877 | 6.4 |
| 1986 | 12 | #3,789 | 6.5 |
| 1985 | 8 | #4,987 | 4.3 |
| 1984 | 8 | #4,812 | 4.4 |
| 1982 | 8 | #4,851 | 4.4 |
| 1981 | 7 | #5,268 | 3.9 |
| 1980 | 6 | #5,961 | 3.4 |
| 1979 | 10 | #3,972 | 5.8 |
| 1978 | 5 | #6,406 | 3.0 |
| 1976 | 6 | #5,358 | 3.8 |
| 1975 | 5 | #5,979 | 3.2 |
| 1974 | 5 | #5,696 | 3.2 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Malek a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Malek has been given almost only to boys: 6 girls in 50 years of records.
Girls and boys named Malek: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Malek, and how old are they?
3,040 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 3,092 Americans ever recorded as Malek. The median Malek alive today is 15 years old; half are between 7 and 24.
The 2020 Census counted 2,819 people named Malek (174 women and girls, 2,645 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 2,331 born in the U.S. The Census count is 21% 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.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 34 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 349 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,240 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,420 |
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 Malek born?
The states with the most babies named Malek are California, Texas and New York, with 50% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 25 | #924 | 0.9× |
| Texas | 10 | #1,717 | 0.6× |
| New York | 9 | #1,259 | 1.4× |
| Michigan | 9 | #813 | 2.3× |
| Florida | 7 | #1,573 | 1.0× |
| Ohio | 7 | #1,084 | 0.7× |
| Pennsylvania | 6 | #1,189 | 0.3× |
| New Jersey | 5 | #1,127 | 0.9× |
| Oregon | 5 | #675 | 0.1× |
| Washington | 5 | #1,090 | 0.1× |
Where Malek is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Malek is most over-represented in Michigan: since 1974 it was given 2.3 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 Malek 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 58,097 babies since 1880, Malek is the second most given (5.3% of them). In 2025 it was given to 121 of their 929 babies (13%), 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.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Malek
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 Malek and names like it
- Compare Malek and MalikBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sMalek peaked in 2023.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Malek since 1910.
- The top names of 2023The year the most babies were named Malek.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Malek alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with MMost given first.