Mel
Masculine · “Short form of Melvin”
Mel is given to both — 3,693 boys and 508 girls since 1880. See Mel as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Mel usually stands for Melvin, and Melvin is a French place name that means bad town. Malleville, from mal and ville, was a Norman settlement whose name became a surname, traveled to Scotland, and ended up as one of the friendliest-sounding names in American English.
How old is the name Mel?
Mel first appears in US birth records in 1902 — 123 years ago. The typical Mel alive today was born around 1955, making them about 70 years old. About 2,400 people named Mel are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Mel most popular?
Mel peaked in 1958, reaching #688 nationally. Today it ranks #7194, 6,506 places below that high. See the whole 1958 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Malleville to Mel
The story of Mel
Place-name surnames are honest in a way most names are not: they record what somebody thought of the land. Malleville, bad town, is one of a set of Norman names including Malpas, bad crossing, and Beaumont, fair hill, which pair judgments with geography. The name went from Normandy to Scotland with the Norman settlement of the twelfth century, became Melville and Melvin, and reached America as a surname and then a given name. Melvin peaked in the American figures in the 1920s; the clipped Mel, registered as a name in its own right, peaks a generation later in 1958, which is the same mid-century pattern that produced Les, Hal and Bud.
Meaningscholars disagree
Short form of Melvin; ultimately Old French "bad settlement"
Melvin is generally traced to the Norman place name Malleville, from Old French mal, bad, and ville, a settlement — probably describing poor land rather than bad people. A competing line derives it from a Gaelic name Maolmhin, smooth chief. Mel may also clip Melville, the same place name by another route, or Melchior. Separately, mel is the Latin and Portuguese word for honey, which is unrelated to the name but accounts for its use in Brazil.
How the name formed
- Malleville
- Melville
- Melvin
- Mel
Related forms: Mel · Melvin
Pronouncing Mel
mell
One syllable, rhyming with bell. The same spelling is used for the female Mel from Melanie or Melissa, and the two sound identical.
Nicknames for Mel
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1902
- Most boys named
- 1958120 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #688reached in 1958
- Change vs 2023
- +10.0%11 in 2025, from 10
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Mel in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Mel in Portuguese — related form
- Melvin in English — related form
Mels among us
people named Mel are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 155,280 born in 2025 was named Mel
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Sherrill test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Mel's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Sherrill climbed just as high around 1936, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Sherrill's path sketches the road Mel is walking now.
Mel sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Mel beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Mel in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- One syllable, three letters, and universally readable.
- It has a documented Norman place-name history behind it.
- It is warm and informal without being invented.
- It reads as a nickname for a longer name most people will assume exists.
- It is used for women as often as for men in short-form usage.
- The literal source, bad settlement, is unflattering if you look it up.
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What they receive
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Mel
Masculine · #7194 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Mels are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,400 people named Mel are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Mel in 2025?
- Mel ranks #7194 among US boy names in 2025, with 11 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Mel?
- About 1 in every 155,280 US boys born in 2025 was named Mel — 11 in all.
- Will my child share the name Mel with classmates?
- Mel will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Mel
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Junius#7194 · Orie#7194 · Shade#7194 · Chesley#7194 · Joesph#7194 · Lofton#7194 · Macon#7194 · Benjiman#7194
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Mel? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Mel and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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