Name Awesome

Melda

Girls' name

English equivalent of Imelda

Melda has been given to 1,487 babies in the U.S. since 1887. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1925, with 44 recorded.

Babies named Melda, 1975

1 in 503,000

Melda over time, 1880–2025

Girls
020406018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Melda: meaning, origin, and history

English equivalent of Imelda

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Melda means

Melda is a English equivalent of Imelda.

Origin, language, and formation

Melda is used in Walloon.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Imelda.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Walloon, Melda is pronounced /mɛl.ˈda/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 1,487 girls were recorded with the name Melda between 1887 and 1975. Its highest annual count was 44 in 1925; its best national rank was #1,042 in 1900.

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.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Melda?

Melda had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 1975, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 1975
1 in 503,000
6 of 3,019,126 births
Among girls only
1 in 243,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 1975
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
348,784 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Melda 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 1975 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 348,784 children born in 1975 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Melda. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Meldas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Melda was born before 1930 — so the typical Melda is around 95 today.

Median birth year
1930
About 95 years old
Biggest decade
1920s
23.5% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
19.4%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
309
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1920s — 23.5% of all recorded uses (349).

Is Melda 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
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 1925 (44)
Years since peak
100
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
19.2% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,042
1900

Spellings of Melda

Melda is not the most common spelling — Ella is, with 16.9% against Melda's 0.07%.

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 Melda is used

Across 1910–2025, Melda was most concentrated in Kentucky — about 1 in 50,000 girls, against 1 in 189,459 across all states with data. It was least common in Texas (1 in —).

02 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Kentucky1 in 50,000
  2. 2Pennsylvania1 in 100,000
  3. 3West Virginia1 in 100,000
  4. 4Louisiana1 in —
  5. 5Minnesota1 in —
  6. 6Texas1 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. Melda has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Melda around the world

Where Melda 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
    2000–2014
    #5,691
    in 2014
  • France
    1990–2025
    #6,735
    in 2025
  • South Australia
    1950–1950
    #436
    in 1950

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

Melda by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#1,042
1900
Peak year
1925
44 that year
First recorded
1887
Last recorded
1975
All-time count
1,487
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Melda

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

MeleaMeleahMelenaMelekMelodiMelizaMelaMellieMeleMeliaMelahMelanaMeliahMelisTildaMelainaMelroseMelatMelonyMelannyMelikaMeloniMelodeeMelani

Sibling names for Melda

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 Melda

Top names of 1925, Melda's peak yearThe 1920s in fullOther names that peaked in 1900Girls' names starting with MWalloon Girl NamesWalloon Names