Mel
Mel is outside the top 1,000 in 2024, with 9 births. Its best rank was 690th, in 1958.
- Rank in 2024
- —outside the top 1,000
- Births in 2024
- 90.00% of boys
- Peak year
- 1958119 births
- Best rank
- #690in 1958
- Since 1902
- 4,175people given the name
The story in the numbers
3,683 boys have been named Mel in the United States since 1902, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 1958, with 119 births.
It is rising: its share of births is at least one and a half times what it was ten years ago.
Half of everyone given the name was born by 1956, and the 1950s alone account for 23%. It has spent 31 of 145 years in the top 1,000.
It is overwhelmingly a boy’s name: 492 girls have also been given it, 12% of the total.
Rank among boys, year by year
By decade
| Decade | boys named Mel | |
|---|---|---|
| 1900s | 17 | |
| 1910s | 94 | |
| 1920s | 151 | |
| 1930s | 355 | |
| 1940s | 731 | |
| 1950s | 843 | |
| 1960s | 687 | |
| 1970s | 266 | |
| 1980s | 143 | |
| 1990s | 141 | |
| 2000s | 137 | |
| 2010s | 74 | |
| 2020s | 44 |
In 1958, its biggest year
Mel was the 690th most given boy’s name that year. The top five boys’ names of 1958 were Michael, David, James, Robert and John. See all of 1958.
Names that rose and fell with Mel
Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.
- Tommypeak 1947
- Sammypeak 1947
- Rogerpeak 1953
- Waynepeak 1947
- Johnnypeak 1947
- Danniepeak 1953
- Darrelpeak 1960
- Wallypeak 1959
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.