Melchor
Masculine · “King of light”
Melchor is one of the three kings, and the names of the three kings are a good demonstration of how tradition fills in what a text leaves out. The story in the Gospel has no names, no number and no crowns.
How old is the name Melchor?
Melchor first appears in US birth records in 1917 — 108 years ago. The typical Melchor alive today was born around 1981, making them about 44 years old. About 700 people named Melchor are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Melchor most popular?
Melchor peaked in 1944, reaching #2309 nationally. See the whole 1944 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Melchior to Melchor
The story of Melchor
The names arrive late and they are not the same everywhere. A Greek manuscript translated into Latin in the sixth century supplies the set most of Europe uses; Syriac churches name three entirely different men; Ethiopian tradition has its own. The number three comes from counting the gifts, not the visitors. What the tradition did with the names afterward is more interesting than where they came from: in Spain and across Latin America the three kings, not a northern saint in a red suit, are the ones who bring presents — on the night of the fifth of January, with shoes left out and straw for the camels, and a cake with a figure baked into it the next day.
Meaningscholars disagree
King of light
The name is usually read as built from Semitic elements meaning king and light, which fits the tradition rather too neatly and may have been arrived at backward. It first appears attached to one of the visitors from the east several centuries after the story it belongs to.
How the name formed
- Melchior
- Melchor
Related forms: Melchor · Melchior · Melchiorre · Melchior
Pronouncing Melchor
mel-CHOR
Two syllables with the stress at the back in Spanish. The ch is the ch of church, not of chorus.
Nicknames for Melchor
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
- 1917
- Most boys named
- 199522 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2309reached in 1944
- Change vs 2021
- +33.3%8 in 2024, from 6
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.
Melchor in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Melchor in Spanish — same name
- Melchior in German — same name
- Melchiorre in Italian — same name
- Melchior in French — same name
Melchors among us
people named Melchor are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Melchor sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- It carries a story that every Christian tradition knows, in a form most Americans have not met.
- Mel gives it an ordinary English short form.
- It is unmistakably itself with no near neighbors in American use.
- Americans will read the ch as a k and say it wrongly on first sight.
- The name is closely tied to a religious story, which is not optional.
- Melchior is the international spelling and his will occasionally be lengthened to it.
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Melchor
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Melchors are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Melchor are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Melchor in 2025?
- Melchor is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Melchor with classmates?
- Melchor will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More M names
The most-given names starting with M, all years combined.
Michael#21 · Matthew#32 · Mark#244 · Mason#39 · Martin#335 · Marvin#699 · Melvin#958 · Marcus#258
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Melchor? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Melchor and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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