Melina

About Melina

Melina has a Greek connection with meli, meaning “honey,” and can also be an elaboration of Mel, a short form of names such as Melissa. Its most celebrated Greek bearer, actress and politician Melina Mercouri, carried the name from cinema into public life and an international campaign over the Parthenon sculptures.

Meaning and sound

Greek Melina is written Μελίνα. The honey association belongs to the Greek word meli; the English short-form route allows Melina to develop within the Melissa family as well. These are compatible explanations for a name used in more than one linguistic setting.

In English, Melina is usually muh-LEE-nuh, with three syllables and stress in the middle. Mel is a natural short form. Melissa is a related name through the English elaboration, while the full name retains the flowing ina ending rather than Melissa's final s sounds.

Melina Mercouri

Mercouri was born Maria Amalia in Athens in 1920. In her own case, Melina was a familiar form associated with Amalia and Maria. She graduated from drama school in 1944 and gained a major theatrical role as Blanche DuBois in a 1949 Greek production of A Streetcar Named Desire.

Her first film was Stella in 1955. Never on Sunday brought her the jointly awarded best actress prize at Cannes in 1960. She later appeared on Broadway in Illya Darling, the musical adaptation of Never on Sunday, in 1967.

Mercouri opposed the military dictatorship that ruled Greece from 1967 to 1974. After its fall she entered parliamentary politics, winning election in 1977. She served as culture minister from 1981 to 1989 and returned to the ministry in 1993, holding office until her death in 1994.

A cultural campaign

As culture minister, Mercouri made the return of the Parthenon sculptures to Greece an international cause. Her intervention at the UNESCO cultural conference in Mexico in 1982 became an important moment in that campaign.

The sculptures held at the British Museum were central to her argument that the surviving parts of the monument should be reunited in Athens. The campaign connected her public reputation with cultural heritage as strongly as her earlier acting career had connected it with Greek cinema. The Acropolis Museum has commemorated her role in bringing sustained international attention to the issue.

Popularity in the United States

Melina's largest recorded American birth count for girls came in 2009, with 681 births and a rank of No. 456. It was recorded for 480 girls in 2000 and 593 in 2010.

In 2025, 434 girls received Melina, placing it at No. 660. Its American use remains substantial, though below the birth-count high reached in the late 2000s.

How popular is Melina?

In 2025, Melina ranked #660 among girls in the United States, with 434 recorded uses. The U.S. birth records first list this spelling for girls in 1883; its largest annual count was 681 in 2009. Rankings count each spelling separately. They describe national use, so local familiarity can differ. The popularity chart shows whether the name has remained common, returned after a quieter period, or risen recently.