Melonie
Feminine · “Greek melaina”
Melanie comes from a Greek word for black. Melonie, the respelling that peaked in 1973, puts a melon in it instead, which is what usually happens when a respeller reaches for the most familiar letter string available.
How old is the name Melonie?
Melonie first appears in US birth records in 1944 — 81 years ago. The typical Melonie alive today was born around 1974, making them about 51 years old. About 5,100 people named Melonie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Melonie most popular?
Melonie peaked in 1973, reaching #763 nationally. Today it ranks #10107, 9,344 places below that high. See the whole 1973 chart.
Where it comes from
From Melaina to Melonie
The story of Melonie
Respellings are not random. When an American parent recasts a name, the substituted letters almost always come from a word or name the speller already knows well, because that is where the hand goes. The unstressed middle vowel of Melanie is a schwa and can be written a, e, i, o or u without changing the pronunciation at all, and the spelling that won in the 1970s was the one that matched an English word. The result is a name that reads as fruit to anyone who has not met it before, and that is fifteen hundred years older than the fruit spelling suggests. The base name's own American rise is usually credited to Gone with the Wind, published in 1936 and filmed in 1939, though the peak came thirty years later; the singer Melanie, who had a number one hit in December 1971, sits much closer to this spelling's own peak.
Meaning
Greek melaina, black or dark
Melanie is from Greek melaina, the feminine of melas, black or dark, the same root as melancholy and melanin. Two fifth-century Roman saints, grandmother and granddaughter, carried it, which is how it entered Christian use. The Melonie spelling changes only the middle vowel and no part of the sound.
How the name formed
- Melaina
- Melania
- Melanie
- Melonie
Related forms: Melanie · Melania · Melany
Pronouncing Melonie
MEL-uh-nee
Three syllables, stress on the first. Melanie and Melonie are homophones; the o is a schwa and does no work.
Nicknames for Melonie
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
- 1944
- Most girls named
- 1973176 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #763reached in 1973
- Change vs 2023
- −35.7%9 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.
Melonie in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Melanie in French — same name
- Melania in Italian — same name
- Melany in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Michigan, California.
Melonies among us
people named Melonie are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 178,585 born in 2025 was named Melonie
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 Marita test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Melonie's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Marita climbed just as high around 1938, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Marita's path sketches the road Melonie is walking now.
Melonie 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
Melonie beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Melonie 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 base name is universally recognized.
- Three syllables with a firm opening beat.
- The o puts the word melon in the middle of the name in print.
- Melanie is the standard spelling by an enormous margin.
- The 1973 peak dates this form precisely.
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What they receive
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Melonie
Feminine · #10107 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Melonies are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 5,100 people named Melonie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Melonie in 2025?
- Melonie ranks #10107 among US girl names in 2025, with 9 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Melonie?
- About 1 in every 178,585 US girls born in 2025 was named Melonie — 9 in all.
- Will my child share the name Melonie with classmates?
- Melonie will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Melonie
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 Melonie? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Melonie and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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