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Melaina

#10,622 in 2025Girls' name

Black, dark

Melaina has been given to 1,197 babies in the U.S. since 1964. In 2025 it ranked #10,622 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 2004, with 78 recorded.

Babies named Melaina, 2025

1 in 368,000

Melaina over time, 1880–2025

Girls
02040608018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Melaina: meaning, origin, and history

Black, dark

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Melaina means

Melaina means “black, dark”.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 1,197 girls were recorded with the name Melaina between 1964 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 78 in 2004; its best national rank was #2,253 in 2004.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #7,443 in 2020 to #10,622 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #6,175 in 2015 to #10,622 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

How common is Melaina?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 368,000
9 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 179,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#10,622
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
255,323 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Melaina sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 255,323 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Melaina. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Melainas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Melaina was born before 2004 — so the typical Melaina is around 21 today.

Median birth year
2004
About 21 years old
Biggest decade
2000s
36.6% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
58.9%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
1,197
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2000s — 36.6% of all recorded uses (438).

Is Melaina rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
+187
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
−3,179
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−4,447
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.43×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
11.5%
Peak was 2004 (78)
Years since peak
21
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
19.8% average annual change
Best rank ever
#2,253
2004

Spellings of Melaina

Melaina is not the most common spelling — Elaine is, with 38.4% against Melaina's 0.17%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Melaina is used

Across 1910–2025, Melaina was most concentrated in California — about 1 in — girls, against 1 in 596,286 across all states with data. It was least common in Texas (1 in —).

00 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in —
  2. 2Illinois1 in —
  3. 3Indiana1 in —
  4. 4Michigan1 in —
  5. 5Missouri1 in —
  6. 6New York1 in —
  7. 7Pennsylvania1 in —
  8. 8Texas1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Melaina has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Melaina around the world

Where Melaina ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    1997–1997
    #3,824
    in 1997
  • France
    1993–1994
    #3,764
    in 1994
  • Canada
    1995–2009
    #2,869
    in 2009
  • South Australia
    1970–1972
    #722
    in 1972

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Melaina by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#10,622
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 3,179
Best rank ever
#2,253
2004
Peak year
2004
78 that year
First recorded
1964
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
1,197
Count in 2025
9

Names similar to Melaina

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

MellinaMelvinaMelinaMelroseMelannyMelenaMellanieMelodeeMeliyahMellodyMelizaMeleahMelaniaMelanaMelannieMeliahCarlinaMarlinaMelaneeJasminaMelodiMelaneyCarminaMellie

Sibling names for Melaina

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Melaina

Top names of 2004, Melaina's peak yearThe 2000s in fullOther names that peaked in 2004Girls' names starting with M