Malcolm

Malcolm meaning

Malcolm is a Christian and international boy's name of Gaelic origin (Old Irish).

Servant of Saint Columba (Old Irish Máel Coluim)

Also used to mean: devotee of Saint Columba, disciple

Malcolm is the Old Irish name Máel Coluim, which the Online Etymology Dictionary explains as "servant of Saint Columba". The first word, máel, meant bald or shorn and came to mean a devotee, because monks wore the tonsure. Columba, whose Latin name means "dove", was the sixth-century Irish monk who founded the monastery of Iona and carried the faith to Scotland. Four kings of Scotland bore the name, among them Malcolm III, who appears in Shakespeare's Macbeth. In India it is used in Tamil and Anglo-Indian Christian families; the economist Malcolm Adiseshiah founded the Madras Institute of Development Studies.

Source: Online Etymology Dictionary (etymonline.com), s.v. Malcolm · entry Malcolm · See the entry · checked 25 Oct 2026

References: Online Etymology Dictionary, Malcolm · Wikipedia, Malcolm Adiseshiah

Famous namesakes

• Malcolm III, king of Scotland
• Malcolm Adiseshiah, Indian economist and educationist

Popularity abroad

• #272 United States, boys 2025 (up 42 from 314 in 2024)
  US Social Security Administration

Official birth registrations. India publishes no national name statistics.

Spellings

Malcolm · Malcom

Related names

Also meaning devotion

Also starting with Mal-

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