Melanie

225,738 people in America carry this name — ranked #248 of 923.

A name with a settled sense and a settled sound.

Say it MEH luh nee

3 syllables · the capitals are the stressed part

Phonetic transcription

M EH1 L AH0 N IY0 — ARPAbet, as published in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. The digit on a vowel marks its stress.

  • People counted 225,738 2020 Census
  • Rank #248 Common
  • Per 100,000 74.7 about 1 in 1,468 people
  • As a surname No not above the reporting threshold

The meaning and origin of Melanie

Greek in origin, reading literally as “black”.

Origins are a matter of scholarly argument rather than record, and a name can be traced more than one way. We state one reading and say where it came from.

Melanie name popularity by year

252,378 babies were given this name since 1886. The busiest year was 1972, with 6,318 of them.

80 90 00 10 20 30 40 50 60 70s 80 90 00 10 20

Most people carrying it were born in the 1970s.

Counted from Social Security card applications, so it covers births registered in the United States and leaves out names given to fewer than five babies in a year.

Middle names that fit Melanie

Three syllables already, so a short middle name keeps the whole from running long.

Better avoided

  • Melanie Mary — same opening
  • Melanie Michelle — same opening
  • Melanie Emma — runs together

Chosen by sound from the pronouncing dictionary, then ordered by how often the name is given. None of it is a rule — the ear decides.

Is Melanie used for boys or for girls?

0.1% men
225,462 women

As recorded on census returns, not as anyone thinks the name ought to be used.

The likeliest full names

The census counts first names and surnames separately and never together, so these are estimates: how often the two halves would meet if they paired at random. They do not — names cluster by community — so read them as an order of magnitude, not a headcount.

Where in America Melanie is thickest on the ground

In Utah the name is given 1.4 times as often as it is across the country.

  • Utah ×1.4
  • Hawaii ×1.4
  • Nevada ×1.4
  • New Mexico ×1.4
  • Rhode Island ×1.3

Measured against the state's own share of births since 1960, so a small state can lead a big one. Counted from Social Security card applications.

How to spell Melanie

Melanie is how 95% of them spell it — 238,252 people answer to the sound.

Each spelling is its own census entry — the counts never overlap, so the shares are of the group, not of the country.

Names about as common

The nearest entries above and below by number of people.

Try it Birth Plan Worksheet

Tick what matters, print it, hand it over. Nothing is stored anywhere.

Open Birth Plan Worksheet on its own page

Where this page gets its numbers

  • Counts, ranks and shares: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 Census tabulations of first and last names occurring 100 or more times. Percentages, bands and groupings are our own arithmetic — the conclusions are ours, not the Bureau’s.
  • Pronunciation, syllables and rhyme groups: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, Carnegie Mellon University. The plain-English respelling is ours.
  • Origins and the forms a name takes in other languages: Charlotte Yonge, History of Christian Names, 1884 — a public-domain work. Scholarship has moved on since, so read it as one reading of a name, not the last word.

Below a hundred people we publish no figure at all — the same threshold the Census Bureau applies to us. What each source covers
Other names of Greek origin