Malek
Masculine · Arabic roots · “king (from Arabic malik)”
Malek is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 3,086 boys against 6 girls since 1880.
Malek is a royal word worn as a name: short, strong, and carried through Lebanese, North African and Persian families to American cities. Two syllables, no ornament — the name does its work plainly.
How old is the name Malek?
Malek first appears in US birth records in 1974 — 51 years ago. The typical Malek alive today was born around 2011, making them about 14 years old. About 3,000 people named Malek are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Malek most popular?
Malek peaked in 2023, reaching #1271 nationally. Today it ranks #1466, 195 places below that high. See the whole 2023 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From malik (Arabic, 'king') to Malek
The story of Malek
Malik has been a title as long as Arabic has had kings, and it moved from throne to cradle early, as royal words often do. The Malek spelling is characteristic of the French-influenced transliteration used across Lebanon and North Africa, and of Persian usage — which is broadly how it reached American cities, with Lebanese, Egyptian, Maghrebi and Iranian families. In the United States it lives beside the more common Malik: the same name in different dress, each community keeping its own habit.
Meaning
king (from Arabic malik)
The Arabic root m-l-k covers rule and possession, and its family of names travels close together: malik is 'king', mālik 'owner, master', malak 'angel'. Malek in Latin letters most often renders the first, and al-Malik — the King — is among the ninety-nine names of God in Islam, which gives the name its weight. In Czech and Polish, Málek is an unrelated surname from malý, 'small' — a coincidence of letters, not a shared line.
How the name formed
- malikArabic, 'king'
- Malek
Related forms: Malik · Malek · Melik
Pronouncing Malek
MAH-lek
Two light syllables with the weight in front; English speakers sometimes say ma-LEK, and bearers answer to both.
Nicknames for Malek
Limited
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
- 1974
- Most boys named
- 2023151 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1271reached in 2023
- Change vs 2024
- −5.5%121 in 2025, from 128
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.
Malek in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Malik in Arabic — transliteration
- Malek in Persian — same name
- Melik in Turkish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, New York, Texas.
Maleks among us
people named Malek are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 14,116 born in 2025 was named Malek
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Malek
- #1466
- Malek on the 2025 chart
- #773
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Malek went to 121 boys in 2025, but Maleek is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 155, which makes it the 773rd most-given boys’ name of the year — 693 places above the chart.
- Malek121
- Maleek34
About 1 boy in 11,020 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 14,116 for Malek 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 Travion test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Malek's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Travion climbed just as high around 2000, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Travion's path sketches the road Malek is walking now.
Malek 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
Where Malek is headed
Malek should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Malek beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Malek in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Short, strong and spelled close to its sound.
- A plain, proud meaning that needs no footnote.
- Recognized across the Arabic-, Persian- and French-speaking worlds.
- Americans who know Malik will write Malik; the spelling correction is routine.
- The actor Rami Malek made it a famous surname, so 'like the actor?' will follow him — friendly, but constant.
- Close neighbors on paper — Malak and Melek, both meaning 'angel' and more often girls' names — occasionally cause mix-ups.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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Malek
Masculine · Arabic roots · #1466 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Maleks are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,000 people named Malek are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Malek?
- Malek is the most-used spelling in US records — 121 of the 155 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Maleek.
- How popular is the name Malek in 2025?
- Malek ranks #1466 among US boy names in 2025, with 121 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Malek?
- About 1 in every 14,116 US boys born in 2025 was named Malek — 121 in all.
- Will my child share the name Malek with classmates?
- Malek will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Malek
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Akiva#1466 · Rodolfo#1466 · Joao#1466 · Jetson#1466 · Monte#1466 · Calloway#1466 · Sire#1466 · Ishmael#1466
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Malek? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Malek and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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