Melena
Feminine · “dear”
Mil is one of the busiest syllables in the Slavic languages. It means dear, kind, gracious, and it is the front or back of a hundred names: Milan, Milena, Miloš, Ludmila, Bogumil, Miroslav. A Slavic name is often a small sentence, and this one starts with affection.
How old is the name Melena?
Melena first appears in US birth records in 1957 — 68 years ago. The typical Melena alive today was born around 1999, making them about 26 years old. About 1,200 people named Melena are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Melena most popular?
Melena peaked in 1975, reaching #2516 nationally. Today it ranks #10917, 8,401 places below that high. See the whole 1975 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From mil to Melena
The story of Melena
Slavic names were compounded from ordinary words the way Germanic ones were, and the components are still transparent to speakers: mir is peace, slav is glory, vlad is rule, bog is god, mil is dear. Miroslav is peace and glory; Ludmila is people and dear; Milena is simply the dear one with a feminine ending. That transparency is unusual — an English speaker does not hear anything in Michael or Susan — and it means a Czech or Serbian child grows up knowing exactly what their name says. Melena reaches American records both from that family, respelled by ear, and from the quite separate Greek root behind Melanie.
Meaningscholars disagree
dear, gracious
Two routes. If the name is Milena respelled, the root is Slavic mil, dear or gracious, one of the most productive elements in those languages. If it is built on Melanie, the root is Greek melas, dark. The e in the first syllable points to the second reading and the shape points to the first, and neither is settled.
How the name formed
- mil
- Milena
- Melena
Related forms: Milena · Milena · Milena · Milena
Pronouncing Melena
muh-LAY-nuh
Three syllables, stress in the middle. muh-LEE-nuh is used just as often. The Slavic Milena is MEE-leh-nah, with the weight at the front and every vowel sounded.
Nicknames for Melena
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
- 1957
- Most girls named
- 200152 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2516reached in 1975
- Change vs 2024
- −42.9%8 in 2025, from 14
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.
Melena in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Milena in Czech — same name
- Milena in Serbian — same name
- Milena in Bulgarian — same name
- Milena in Italian — same name
Melenas among us
people named Melena are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 200,908 born in 2025 was named Melena
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 Cathlyn test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Melena's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Cathlyn climbed just as high around 1953, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Cathlyn's path sketches the road Melena is walking now.
Melena 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
Melena beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Melena in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Three short forms, all of which are full names somewhere.
- The Slavic element behind it is a living, transparent word rather than a reconstruction.
- Three open syllables and nothing hard in any of them.
- Melena is also a medical term, for a particular kind of dark stool; a doctor will recognize the word before the name.
- Milena and Melina are both commoner and both close, so the spelling will be given often.
- The middle vowel is said two ways and the spelling does not decide.
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What they receive
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Melena
Feminine · #10917 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Melenas 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 Melena are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Melena in 2025?
- Melena ranks #10917 among US girl names in 2025, with 8 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Melena?
- About 1 in every 200,908 US girls born in 2025 was named Melena — 8 in all.
- Will my child share the name Melena with classmates?
- Melena will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Melena
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Edythe#10917 · Tessie#10917 · Drusilla#10917 · Eugenie#10917 · Ivah#10917 · Karri#10917 · Claribel#10917 · Myrtle#10917
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Melena? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Melena and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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