Malik

Malik, Melik, Malka, Malek or Melekh (ملك; מֶלֶךְ) is the Semitic term translating to "king", recorded in East Semitic and later Northwest Semitic (e.g. Aramaic, Canaanite, Hebrew) and Arabic. Although the early forms of the name were to be found among the Pre-Arab and Pre-Islamic Semites of The Levant, Canaan, and Mesopotamia, it has since been adopted in various other, mainly but not exclusively Islamized or Arabized non-Semitic Asian languages for their ruling princes and to render kings elsewhere. It is also sometimes used in derived meanings. The female version of Malik is Malikah (ملكة) (or its various spellings such as Malekeh or Melike), meaning "queen". The name Malik was originally found among various pre-Arab and non-Muslim Semitic peoples such as the indigenous ethnic Assyrians of Iraq, Amorites, Jews, Arameans, Mandeans, Syriacs, Nabateans and pre-Islamic Arabs. It has since been spread among various predominantly Muslim and non-Semitic peoples in Central Asia, the Middle East, and South Asia. Malik is also an angel in the Quran that never smiled since the day the hellfire was created. The last name "Malik" or "Malík" may also be of West Slavic origin, most predominantly Polish, Czech, and Slovakian, as it comes from a Polish word "mały" meaning "small". It's comparable with surnames such as "Malicki", "Maliczek", or "Malikowski". Malik is also used as a surname by communities following Hinduism living in India.