Etymology

Malcolm

M3A1L1C3O1L1M3

Today it means: A male given name from Scottish Gaelic or Goidelic, variant of Calum and Callum, feminine equivalent Malcolmina, equivalent to Scottish Gaelic Maol Chaluim. Full definition →

Goidelic ← Scottish Gaelic Maol ← Irish Maol
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The story

  1. Latin · derived fromcolumbus
  2. Proto-Celtic · derived from*mailos
  3. Old Irish · derived fromMáel Columb
  4. Middle Irish · derived fromMáel Coluim
  5. Irish · derived fromMaol
  6. Scottish Gaelic · derived fromMaol
  7. Goidelic · derived from
  8. English todayMalcolm

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.

Words from the same roots

Scottish GaelicMaol all →

melrosemull

Latincolumbus all →

colombophiliacolumbiad

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.