Melva
Melva is outside the top 1,000 in 2024, with 5 births. Its best rank was 372nd, in 1937.
- Rank in 2024
- —outside the top 1,000
- Births in 2024
- 50.00% of girls
- Peak year
- 1938308 births
- Best rank
- #372in 1937
- Since 1880
- 14,155people given the name
The story in the numbers
14,155 girls have been named Melva in the United States since 1880, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 1938, with 308 births.
The name has all but left use: 5 births in 2024, against 308 at the peak.
Half of everyone given the name was born by 1937, and the 1920s alone account for 20%. It has spent 78 of 145 years in the top 1,000.
Rank among girls, year by year
By decade
| Decade | girls named Melva | |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 40 | |
| 1890s | 150 | |
| 1900s | 384 | |
| 1910s | 1,585 | |
| 1920s | 2,781 | |
| 1930s | 2,759 | |
| 1940s | 2,468 | |
| 1950s | 1,977 | |
| 1960s | 1,041 | |
| 1970s | 554 | |
| 1980s | 245 | |
| 1990s | 116 | |
| 2000s | 34 | |
| 2010s | 16 | |
| 2020s | 5 |
In 1938, its biggest year
Melva was the 378th most given girl’s name that year. The top five girls’ names of 1938 were Mary, Barbara, Patricia, Betty and Shirley. See all of 1938.
Names that rose and fell with Melva
Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.
- Ernestinepeak 1928
- Norenepeak 1931
- Gaynellepeak 1937
- Pearlinepeak 1927
- Bernadinepeak 1924
- Lavonpeak 1924
- Juanitapeak 1924
- Rethapeak 1924
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.