Malakai, a variant of the Biblical name Malachi, comes from the Hebrew name Mal'aki and is believed to be derived from the Hebrew word mal'ak, meaning "messenger" or "angel." It can also be a combination of the Hawaiian words māla, meaning "garden," and kai, meaning "sea." In that case, it would translate to "garden by the sea." The name first appeared in the Social Security Administration's top 1,000 for boy names in 2002 and was steadily risen in the two decades since, debuting in the top-300 in 2020 and cracking the top-250 in 2023. YouTuber Nash Grier named his son Malakai, born in 2019.
