Maalik
Masculine · “Arabic "owner”
The doubled a in Maalik is doing real work, and it changes the word. Arabic Mālik with a long first vowel means owner or possessor; Malik with a short one means king. They are two different words from the same root, and the extra letter is the only thing in English spelling that can tell them apart.
How old is the name Maalik?
Maalik first appears in US birth records in 1989 — 36 years ago. The typical Maalik alive today was born around 2004, making them about 21 years old. About 500 people named Maalik are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Maalik most popular?
Maalik peaked in 1995, reaching #2253 nationally. Today it ranks #7194, 4,941 places below that high. See the whole 1995 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From mālik to Maalik
The story of Maalik
Arabic marks vowel length as a phonemic distinction, meaning the difference between a long and a short vowel changes the word, not just its accent. English does not, which is why transliteration has to improvise: a doubled letter, a macron, an acute accent, or nothing at all. Mālik ibn Anas, the eighth-century jurist of Medina, gave his name to the Maliki school of law, one of the four Sunni schools, and his is the participle form. The name entered American use widely in the 1970s and 1980s, and Maalik, peaking in 1995, is one of the transliterations that keeps the length distinction visible where Malik and Maleek erase it.
Meaning
Arabic "owner, possessor"
From the root m-l-k, to own or to rule. Mālik, with a long ā, is the active participle: one who owns. Malik, with a short a, is the noun king. Both are used as names, and both appear among the ninety-nine names of God — Al-Malik, the Sovereign, and Mālik al-Mulk, Owner of All Dominion. Doubling the a in English is the standard way of marking Arabic vowel length, so Maalik points at the participle rather than the noun.
How the name formed
- mālik
- Mālik
- Maalik
Related forms: مالك · Malik · Malik
Pronouncing Maalik
MAA-lik
Two syllables, stress on the first, with a long open first vowel — the doubled a is a length mark, not two sounds. American English often says muh-LEEK instead, which is the short-vowel word with the stress moved.
Nicknames for Maalik
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1989
- Most boys named
- 199535 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2253reached in 1995
- Change vs 2024
- +10.0%11 in 2025, from 10
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Maalik in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- مالك in Arabic — transliteration
- Malik in English — spelling variant
- Malik in Turkish — same name
Maaliks among us
people named Maalik are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 155,280 born in 2025 was named Maalik
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Maalik
- #7194
- Maalik on the 2025 chart
- #390
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Maalik went to 11 boys in 2025, but Malik, Malick and Malyk and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 5 spellings went to 771, which makes it the 390th most-given boys’ name of the year — 6,804 places above the chart.
About 1 boy in 2,215 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 155,280 for Maalik itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Hodges test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Maalik's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Hodges climbed just as high around 1952, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Hodges's path sketches the road Maalik is walking now.
Maalik sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Maalik beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Maalik in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The spelling preserves a real Arabic distinction that other transliterations lose.
- The meaning is settled and documented in classical Arabic.
- Mal is a familiar short form shared with established English names.
- Malik is far more common and will be substituted constantly.
- English speakers read the doubled a as a typo rather than a length mark.
- American and Arabic pronunciations put the stress on different syllables.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Maalik to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Maalik? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Maalik
Masculine · #7194 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Maaliks are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Maalik are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Maalik?
- Maalik is one of 5 recorded spellings. Malik is the more common one — 724 births in 2025 against 11 for Maalik.
- How popular is the name Maalik in 2025?
- Maalik ranks #7194 among US boy names in 2025, with 11 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Maalik?
- About 1 in every 155,280 US boys born in 2025 was named Maalik — 11 in all.
- Will my child share the name Maalik with classmates?
- Maalik will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Maalik
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Junius#7194 · Orie#7194 · Shade#7194 · Chesley#7194 · Joesph#7194 · Lofton#7194 · Macon#7194 · Benjiman#7194
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Maalik? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Maalik and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle