Melanie

girls’ nameSteadyCompare

Melanie is ranked 122nd among girls in 2024 (2,244 births). Its best rank was 42nd, in 1972.

Rank in 2024: #122up 8 from 2023
Births in 2024: 2,2440.14% of girls
Peak year: 19726,295 births
Best rank: #42in 1972
Since 1886: 260,544people given the name

Babies named Melanie, by year of birthgirls

The story in the numbers

260,544 girls have been named Melanie in the United States since 1886, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 1972, with 6,295 births — 0.41% of all girls recorded that year.

It is holding steady: its share of births has moved by less than half in either direction over ten years (rank 81 → 122).

Half of everyone given the name was born by 1983, and the 1970s alone account for 20%. It has spent 88 of 145 years in the top 1,000, 40 of them in the top 100.

Rank among girls, year by year

Higher on the chart = more popularrank (gaps = outside the top 1,000)

By decade

Decade	girls named Melanie
1880s	21
1890s	63
1900s	79
1910s	145
1920s	183
1930s	242
1940s	5,030
1950s	19,852
1960s	36,750
1970s	53,320
1980s	35,950
1990s	29,353
2000s	35,227
2010s	33,079
2020s	11,250

In 1972, its biggest year

Melanie was the 42nd most given girl’s name that year. The top five girls’ names of 1972 were Jennifer, Michelle, Lisa, Kimberly and Amy. See all of 1972.

Names that rose and fell with Melanie

Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.

Other spellings in the data

What this page does not tell you. The Social Security data records how many babies were given a name, not what the name means or where it comes from — so neither do we. Counts cover people with a Social Security number; names given to fewer than five babies in a year are withheld. More on the data.