Melanie
Feminine · “Dark”
Melanie is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 262,640 girls against 614 boys since 1880. See Melanie as a boy name
Melanie is the French form of a Greek name meaning 'dark', and it became one of the defining American girls' names of the later twentieth century. Two Melanies changed their fields: a singer who wrote a song about a rain-soaked crowd at Woodstock, and a psychoanalyst who learned to read children through their play.
How old is the name Melanie?
Melanie first appears in US birth records in 1886 — 139 years ago. The typical Melanie alive today was born around 1984, making them about 41 years old. About 249,000 people named Melanie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Melanie most popular?
Melanie peaked in 1972, reaching #42 nationally. Today it ranks #142, 100 places below that high. See the whole 1972 chart.
Melanie appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From melaina to Melanie
The story of Melanie
Melanie Klein, working in Berlin and then London, began analyzing very young children in the 1920s by giving them small toys and watching how they played, and her ideas became one of the foundations of modern child psychotherapy. At Woodstock in 1969 the young singer Melanie Safka watched the crowd light candles in the rain during her set, and she wrote 'Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)' about it; it became her first big hit. Melanie spread widely in America in the second half of the twentieth century; the spelling is recorded for a handful of boys, but it is a girl's name in every tradition behind it.
Meaning
Dark, black
From Greek melaina, 'dark, black', through the Latin Melania and French Mélanie.
Cultural footprint
Melanie Griffith (b. 1957) — Working Girl Oscar nominee
Melanie Martinez (b. 1995) — Theatrical pop artist behind Cry Baby
Melanie C (b. 1974) — Sporty Spice of the Spice Girls
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
How the name formed
- melaina
- Melania
- Mélanie
- Melanie
Related forms: Mélanie · Melania · Melaina · Melania
Pronouncing Melanie
MEL-uh-nee
Three syllables with the stress on the first; French speakers stress the last.
Nicknames for Melanie
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
- 1940 — Gone with the Wind's gentle Melanie
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1886
- Most girls named
- 19736,079 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #42reached in 1972
- Change vs 2022
- −4.6%2,074 in 2025, from 2,173
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.
Melanie in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Mélanie in French — same name
- Melania in Latin — same name
- Melaina in Greek — related form
- Melania in Spanish — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Melanies among us
people named Melanie are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 775 born in 2025 was named Melanie
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 Diana test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Melanie's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Diana climbed just as high around 1946, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Diana's path sketches the road Melanie is walking now.
Melanie peaked long ago yet still holds steady — names that survive their own wave usually settle into quiet, durable classics.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Melanie is headed
Melanie should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Melanie beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Melanie in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Instantly recognized and spelled as everyone expects.
- A settled Greek meaning.
- Comes with Mel as a ready short form.
- It was very common a generation ago, so it reads as a name of that era to many.
- Some people dislike a meaning of 'dark'.
- For a boy it would be very unusual.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Melanie
Feminine · #142 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Melanies are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 249,000 people named Melanie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Melanie in 2025?
- Melanie ranks #142 among US girl names in 2025, with 2,074 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Melanie?
- About 1 in every 775 US girls born in 2025 was named Melanie — 2,074 in all.
- Will my child share the name Melanie with classmates?
- Melanie will almost certainly be the only one in school.
- What explains the spikes and dips on Melanie's chart?
- Melanie climbed after 1940 — Gone with the Wind's gentle Melanie.
Ranked beside Melanie
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Sloane#141 · Brielle#143 · Natalia#144 · Alana#140 · Remi#145 · Elliana#139 · Emersyn#138 · Aubrey#146
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Melanie? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Melanie and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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