Melaina
Feminine · “Greek melaina”
Melancholy is a diagnosis from a discarded physiology. It means black bile, one of the four humours, and the word survived the collapse of the medical theory it belonged to by four hundred years.
How old is the name Melaina?
Melaina first appears in US birth records in 1964 — 61 years ago. The typical Melaina alive today was born around 2004, making them about 21 years old. About 1,200 people named Melaina are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Melaina most popular?
Melaina peaked in 2004, reaching #2240 nationally. Today it ranks #10107, 7,867 places below that high. See the whole 2004 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From melaina to Melaina
The story of Melaina
Greek medicine explained health as a balance of four fluids: blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile. Each had a temperament attached, so an excess of black bile, melan chole, produced the melancholic personality: withdrawn, thoughtful, prone to sorrow. The physiology was abandoned entirely, but the vocabulary stayed, and English still has sanguine, phlegmatic, choleric and melancholy, four adjectives describing character that are really the names of body fluids. The same Greek root gives melanin, the pigment, and melanoma. Melanie descends from it by a different route, through two Roman saints of the fifth century, grandmother and granddaughter, both of whom gave away enormous fortunes and are remembered for it.
Meaning
Greek melaina, black or dark
From Greek melaina, the feminine of melas, black, the same root behind melanin and melancholy. Melaina is a spelling closer to the Greek than the usual Melanie or Melania; its American peak is 2004.
How the name formed
- melaina
- Melania
- Melaina
Related forms: Melanie · Melania · Melaina
Pronouncing Melaina
meh-LAY-nuh
Three syllables, stress on the second. This spelling shifts the stress off the first syllable, where Melanie keeps it.
Nicknames for Melaina
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
- 1964
- Most girls named
- 200478 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2240reached in 2004
- Change vs 2024
- 0.0%9 in 2025, from 9
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.
Melaina in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Melanie in English — related form
- Melania in Italian — same name
- Melaina in Greek — same name
Melainas among us
people named Melaina are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 178,585 born in 2025 was named Melaina
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 Marysol test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Melaina's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Marysol climbed just as high around 1970, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Marysol's path sketches the road Melaina is walking now.
Melaina 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
Melaina beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Melaina in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Mel is a short, established, low-fuss short form.
- The Greek root is documented and gives several familiar English words.
- Three syllables with a clear central stress.
- Melanie is the standard form and is stressed differently.
- It will be heard as Melina, Malena or Marlaina.
- The 2004 peak dates this spelling.
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What they receive
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Melaina
Feminine · #10107 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Melainas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,200 people named Melaina are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Melaina in 2025?
- Melaina ranks #10107 among US girl names in 2025, with 9 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Melaina?
- About 1 in every 178,585 US girls born in 2025 was named Melaina — 9 in all.
- Will my child share the name Melaina with classmates?
- Melaina will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Melaina
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Berta#10107 · Jettie#10107 · Maye#10107 · Osa#10107 · Fidelia#10107 · Alysa#10107 · Su#10107 · Willie#10107
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Melaina? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Melaina 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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