Malik
Malik was given to 724 boys in 2025, #437 among boys’ names; 49,866 Americans have been recorded with it since 1949 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 48,700 Americans named Malik and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 24 years old and half are between 15 and 29.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Malik by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Malik mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Malik is “a male given name from Arabic.” Its etymology gives the sense “Leader” (مَلِك).
From Arabic مَالِك (mālik) and مَلِك (malik, “Leader”).
/məˈlik/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Malik?
#437 among boys’ names, 2025
Malik fell from #375 in 2015 to #437 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 0.45 to 0.42 per 1,000.
4,050 babies in 1996, the peak
Malik peaked in 1996, when 4,050 babies were given it (4,026 boys, #97 among boys’ names). The 724 births of 2025 are 18% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 724 | #437 | 0.42 |
| 2024 | 740 | #428 | 0.43 |
| 2023 | 835 | #383 | 0.49 |
| 2022 | 808 | #395 | 0.46 |
| 2021 | 810 | #392 | 0.46 |
| 2020 | 838 | #373 | 0.49 |
| 2019 | 886 | #363 | 0.49 |
| 2018 | 874 | #373 | 0.48 |
| 2017 | 869 | #378 | 0.47 |
| 2016 | 844 | #382 | 0.44 |
Every recorded year (64)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 862 | #375 | 0.45 |
| 2014 | 842 | #372 | 0.44 |
| 2013 | 940 | #341 | 0.50 |
| 2012 | 913 | #340 | 0.48 |
| 2011 | 988 | #322 | 0.52 |
| 2010 | 1,192 | #283 | 0.62 |
| 2009 | 1,359 | #255 | 0.69 |
| 2008 | 1,218 | #280 | 0.60 |
| 2007 | 1,255 | #273 | 0.60 |
| 2006 | 1,191 | #289 | 0.58 |
| 2005 | 1,253 | #265 | 0.63 |
| 2004 | 1,377 | #243 | 0.69 |
| 2003 | 1,506 | #229 | 0.76 |
| 2002 | 1,659 | #211 | 0.85 |
| 2001 | 1,864 | #197 | 1.0 |
| 2000 | 2,084 | #176 | 1.1 |
| 1999 | 2,246 | #165 | 1.2 |
| 1998 | 2,694 | #138 | 1.4 |
| 1997 | 3,381 | #111 | 1.8 |
| 1996 | 4,026 | #97 | 2.1 |
| 1995 | 2,707 | #131 | 1.4 |
| 1994 | 853 | #309 | 0.44 |
| 1993 | 766 | #331 | 0.39 |
| 1992 | 582 | #394 | 0.29 |
| 1991 | 368 | #523 | 0.18 |
| 1990 | 328 | #558 | 0.16 |
| 1989 | 223 | #668 | 0.11 |
| 1988 | 158 | #754 | 0.08 |
| 1987 | 154 | #736 | 0.08 |
| 1986 | 127 | #806 | 0.07 |
| 1985 | 124 | #800 | 0.07 |
| 1984 | 114 | #821 | 0.06 |
| 1983 | 115 | #818 | 0.06 |
| 1982 | 113 | #836 | 0.06 |
| 1981 | 131 | #765 | 0.07 |
| 1980 | 168 | #667 | 0.09 |
| 1979 | 147 | #711 | 0.09 |
| 1978 | 167 | #650 | 0.10 |
| 1977 | 144 | #709 | 0.09 |
| 1976 | 139 | #708 | 0.09 |
| 1975 | 123 | #753 | 0.08 |
| 1974 | 110 | #769 | 0.07 |
| 1973 | 126 | #718 | 0.08 |
| 1972 | 134 | #695 | 0.08 |
| 1971 | 132 | #719 | 0.07 |
| 1970 | 126 | #732 | 0.07 |
| 1969 | 51 | #1,090 | 0.03 |
| 1968 | 36 | #1,271 | 0.02 |
| 1967 | 21 | #1,738 | 0.01 |
| 1966 | 17 | #1,938 | 0.01 |
| 1965 | 8 | #3,147 | under 0.01 |
| 1964 | 6 | #3,877 | under 0.01 |
| 1952 | 6 | #3,597 | under 0.01 |
| 1949 | 5 | #4,022 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Malik a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Malik has been given almost only to boys: 259 girls in 64 years of records.
Girls and boys named Malik: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Malik, and how old are they?
48,700 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 49,866 Americans ever recorded as Malik. The median Malik alive today is 24 years old; half are between 15 and 29.
The 2020 Census counted 37,659 people named Malik (267 women and girls, 37,392 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 44,549 born in the U.S. The Census count is 15% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 11 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 1,520 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 10,600 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 25,800 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 10,800 |
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 Malik born?
The states with the most babies named Malik are California, Texas and Florida, with 28% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 76 | #426 | 0.5× |
| Texas | 67 | #507 | 0.5× |
| Florida | 56 | #352 | 1.3× |
| New York | 43 | #402 | 1.5× |
| Michigan | 41 | #249 | 1.4× |
| Illinois | 36 | #303 | 1.4× |
| Ohio | 34 | #335 | 0.9× |
| Georgia | 32 | #373 | 1.9× |
| Pennsylvania | 28 | #383 | 1.2× |
| Maryland | 25 | #229 | 2.0× |
Where Malik is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Malik is most over-represented in District of Columbia: since 1949 it was given 4.3 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 Malik 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, Malik is the most given (86% of them). In 2025 it was given to 724 of their 929 babies (78%), 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 Malik
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 Malik and names like it
- Compare Malik and MalekBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sMalik peaked in 1996.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Malik since 1910.
- Arabic namesWiktionary’s origin for Malik: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1996The year the most babies were named Malik.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Malik alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with MMost given first.