girl's name
Melanie
MEL-a-nee
- Origin Greek
- Gender Girl
- Syllables 3
- Letters 7
- Popularity Top 1000 (US)
- Births on record 410,828
the United States
#142
2025 births
Melanie is a girl's name of Greek origin meaning "black" or "dark." It comes from melas, the root behind both melancholy and melanin, and reached English through two Roman saints of the same family.
- Melanie is a name of Greek origin.
- Peaked in 1972, when 6,320 babies were given the name.
- Its usage has held steady over the past decade.
- Today about 1 in 1,599 babies in the United States is given this name.
- First appears in US birth records in 1886.
- 3 syllables, with the stress on syllable 1.
Melanie over time
Births per decade in the United States, 1880s to 2020s. The striped bar is the 2020s, still in progress — it covers 2020 to 2025, not a full ten years.
Show the numbers
| Decade | Births |
|---|---|
| 1880s | 21 |
| 1890s | 63 |
| 1900s | 79 |
| 1910s | 145 |
| 1920s | 183 |
| 1930s | 242 |
| 1940s | 5,029 |
| 1950s | 19,862 |
| 1960s | 36,821 |
| 1970s | 53,498 |
| 1980s | 36,105 |
| 1990s | 29,444 |
| 2000s | 35,322 |
| 2010s | 33,103 |
| 2020s (to 2025) | 13,337 |
What Melanie means
Melanie means dark or black, from the Greek melas. The name described coloring — hair or complexion — rather than carrying any of the gloomy associations the English word dark has picked up.
Where Melanie comes from
Melanie descends from the Greek melaina, the feminine of melas, black or dark. The same root gives melancholy, literally black bile, and melanin, the pigment. Two Roman saints, Melania the Elder and her granddaughter Melania the Younger, carried the name into Christian use in the fourth and fifth centuries; the younger gave away one of the largest fortunes in the empire. The name reached England through French as Melanie and was rare until Gone with the Wind gave it Melanie Hamilton in 1936.
Melanie in use
Our data shows Melanie stable, peaking in 1972, and it first appears in our records in 1886. Its 1972 peak places it alongside Michelle, Angela and Heather — a cohort of girls' names that rose and fell together within about twenty years.
How popular is Melanie?
In 2025, Melanie was given to 2,074 babies in the United States, ranking #142 that year. It is a well-established, commonly used name.
Where Melanie is used
US figures omit any name given to fewer than five babies in a year, so the rarest names are absent from the source rather than absent from use. Data & sources.
How Melanie is spelled
Birth registers count each spelling separately, so every one has its own ranking.
| Spelling | What it is | Births on record |
|---|---|---|
| Mélanie | Mélanie is Melanie written with an acute accent in France, and the spelling parents there overwhelmingly choose: it ranks #1,123 in France, against #7,113 for Melanie. | 133,455 |
Names that peaked alongside Melanie
These names rose and fell in the same era, which is why they tend to sound like they belong together.
Parents who like Melanie also like
Names whose popularity has risen and fallen in step with Melanie over the last century — the same taste, a different name.
4 nicknames for Melanie
Each one is a name in its own right — the figure underneath is how it is doing today, so you can see which short forms are rising and which have faded.
Melanie in other languages
The same name as it is spelled elsewhere — not shortenings, and not different names that merely sound alike. Each one has its own record here.
Sibling names for Melanie
Names from the same era that won't rhyme or share an initial with Melanie — the two things that make a sibling set grate.
Common questions about Melanie
What does the name Melanie mean?
Melanie means "black" or "dark," from the Greek melas.
Is Melanie related to melanin?
Yes — both come from the Greek melas, black. Melancholy shares the root too, literally meaning black bile.
Did Gone with the Wind popularize Melanie?
It brought the name to a wide audience in 1936. Our data shows it peaking later, in 1972.
Is Melanie a girl's or a boy's name?
Melanie is given almost entirely to girls in birth records.
How many syllables are in Melanie?
Melanie has 3 syllables.
What are the nicknames for Melanie?
Melanie is usually shortened to Mel, Lanie, Melody and Mellie.
Is Melanie a good name?
That is not something records can settle, but they can tell you what you would be choosing. Melanie currently ranks #142 in the United States. Its usage has held steady over the past decade. Everything else — how it sounds with your surname, who it reminds you of — is yours.