Humanverse

Malachi vs Maleni

American parents have registered 66,048 Malachis since 1880, against 963 Malenis. Malachi is still ahead, with 2,701 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Malachi against Maleni, 1880 to 2025 0 800 1.6k 2.4k 3.2k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Malachi Maleni

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Malachi has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1993, when Malachi had 253 and Maleni had 30.

Side by side

  Malachi Maleni
Total US births 66,048963
Most in one year 2,790174
Babies in 2025 2,70167
Estimated living today 64,000960
Median age today 135
Peak year 20062019
Best rank 150th boys1,315th girls
Rank in 2025 134th2,583rd
First recorded 18801991
Girls / boys 290 / 65,758963 / 0

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Malachis alive today are over 13; half the Malenis are over 5. That is 8 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Malachi and Maleni.