Malcolm

English

Etymology

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.

Pronunciation

• enPR: mălʹkəm, IPA^(key): /ˈmæl.kəm/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Proper noun

Malcolm

1. A male given name from Scottish Gaelic or Goidelic, variant of Calum or Callum, feminine equivalent Malcolmina, equivalent to Scottish Gaelic Maol Chaluim.
   • c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv]:

     We will establish our estate upon / Our eldest, Malcolm, whom we name hereafter / The Prince of Cumberland.

2. A surname.
3. A place name:
   1. A minor city in Poweshiek County, Iowa, United States.
   2. An unincorporated community in Charles County, Maryland, United States.
   3. A village in Lancaster County, Nebraska, United States.
   4. An abandoned town in the Shire of Leonora, Goldfields-Esperance region, Western Australia.

Derived terms

• malcolmi