Malcolm

Where Malcolm comes from

Royal name in Scotland, anglicised from various historical Goidelic names equivalent to Scottish Gaelic Maol Chaluim or Calum, Irish Maol Colm, Middle Irish Máel Coluim, Old Irish Máel Columb (literally “devotee of [Saint] Columba”); proper nouns derived from máel (“tonsured”) from Proto-Celtic *mailos, and columb (“dove”) from Latin columbus.
— Wiktionary's entry for Malcolm
  • Scottish Gaelic
  • Goidelic
  • 2 syllables
Along the way
  1. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #403 among boys — 18 babies in the first year on record.
  2. 1925
    Malcolm X born
    American Black rights activist
  3. 1928
    Peak, #205
    666 babies named Malcolm — more than any year before or since.
  4. 1943
    Malcolm McDowell born
    British actor
  5. 1977
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #440.
In the dictionary
  • A male given name from Scottish Gaelic or Goidelic, variant of Calum and Callum, feminine equivalent Malcolmina, equivalent to Scottish Gaelic Maol Chaluim.
Namesakes
  • Malcolm X · American Black rights activist, 1925–1965
  • Malcolm McDowell · British actor, born 1943
  • Malcolm Turnbull · Prime Minister of Australia from 2015 to 2018, born 1954
  • Malcolm Fraser · Australian politician, 22nd Prime Minister of Australia, 1930–2015
  • Malcolm III of Scotland · King of Scotland from 1058 to 1093, 1031–1093

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.