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Melville

Recorded 1880–1981 · United States

Melville was most popular in 1918, when 77 American babies were given the name — ranking #1,518 that year. It was not recorded in 2025. Across 1880–2025 the Social Security Administration has recorded 2,283 people named Melville.

Most popular in1918
Rank that year#1,518
Births that year77
Total since 18802,283
Given to99% boys
Alive today~414
Median age74

Melville over time

18802025
Births per year. The dot marks Melville’s peak in 1918. Gaps are years the SSA suppressed, which it does for any name given to fewer than five babies.

How old is the name Melville?

The Social Security Administration’s records begin in 1880, and Melville is already there in that first year — so the name is older than the record and these figures cannot date it. It has been recorded in 98 of the 146 years since. It was last recorded in 1981.

How many people are named Melville?

The Social Security Administration has recorded 2,283 American births named Melville between 1880 and 2025. That is recorded US births, not a world population — it counts people issued a Social Security number at birth in the United States. Of those, roughly 414 are estimated to be alive today.

How many babies were named Melville in 2025?

Melville was not recorded in 2025. The SSA withholds any name given to fewer than five babies in a year, so fewer than five American babies were given it.

Is Melville a boy’s or a girl’s name?

Across the whole record Melville is a boy’s name — 0.6% of the 2,283 Americans given it were girls and 99.4% were boys.

Counted from every US birth the Social Security Administration recorded under this name, so it reflects use rather than opinion. A name given to fewer than five babies of one sex in a year is withheld at source and is not counted.

How old is someone named Melville?

Roughly 414 Americans named Melville are alive today — 18% of everyone ever recorded with the name. The median is 74 years old, and half are between 63 and 82.

An estimate, not a count. Recorded births are carried forward through the Social Security Administration’s 2023 period life table, by age and sex. That table describes mortality in one recent year, so it credits the oldest cohorts with today’s survival rather than the harsher rates they actually lived through — the further back a name peaked, the more this will overstate how many remain. It counts people issued a Social Security number at birth, not immigrants who arrived later.

Where Melville is most concentrated

How much more common the name is in each state than across the country as a whole.

Explore further

See Melville on the interactive charts

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Source: U.S.A. Social Security Administration. Years 1880–2025. namelegacy.org