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Melva

Girls' name

Feminine form of Melvin

Melva has been given to 14,185 babies in the U.S. since 1880. 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 1938, with 308 recorded.

Babies named Melva, 2024

1 in 669,000

Melva over time, 1880–2025

GirlsBoys
010020030040018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Melva: meaning, origin, and history

Feminine form of Melvin

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Melva means

Melva is a feminine form of Melvin.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Melva is used in English.

Another recorded pronunciation is /ˈmɛl.və/ for Melva.

Meaning behind the documented name family

The name developed through Melva → Melvin. The family’s meaning is “bad + settlement”, recorded in English with the source elements mala and ville.

Origin, language, and formation

Melva is used in English and Spanish.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Melvin.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Spanish, Melva is pronounced /ˈmelba/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 14,155 girls were recorded with the name Melva between 1880 and 2024. Its highest annual count was 308 in 1938; its best national rank was #372 in 1937.

In the United States, 30 boys were recorded with the name Melva between 1926 and 1941. Its highest annual count was 8 in 1926; its best national rank was #3,291 in 1926.

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 Melva?

Melva had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2024, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2024
1 in 669,000
5 of 3,342,801 births
Among girls only
1 in 324,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2024
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
463,412 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Melva 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 2024 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 463,412 children born in 2024 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Melva. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Melvas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Melva was born before 1937 — so the typical Melva is around 88 today.

Median birth year
1937
About 88 years old
Biggest decade
1920s
19.6% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
0.39%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
3,988
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1920s — 19.6% of all recorded uses (2,781).

Is Melva 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 1938 (308)
Years since peak
87
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
30.6% average annual change
Best rank ever
#372
1937

Spellings of Melva

Melva is not the most common spelling — Ella is, with 17.6% against Melva's 0.71%.

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 Melva is used

Across 1910–2025, Melva was most concentrated in Oklahoma — about 1 in 3,448 girls, against 1 in 15,126 across all states with data. It was least common in New Jersey (1 in —).

029 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Oklahoma1 in 3,448
  2. 2Kansas1 in 4,348
  3. 3Arkansas1 in 5,882
  4. 4Louisiana1 in 6,250
  5. 5Missouri1 in 6,667
  6. 6Nebraska1 in 7,143
  7. 7Texas1 in 7,692
  8. 8Iowa1 in 9,091

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. Melva has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Melva around the world

Where Melva 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
    2025–2025
    #3,705
    in 2025
  • South Australia
    1944–1969
    #731
    in 1969

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Melva in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Melva. Linked forms have their own page here.

MalvaMelvina

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Melva 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
#372
1937
Peak year
1938
308 that year
First recorded
1880
Last recorded
2024
All-time count
14,155
Count in 2025
Under 5

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#3,291
1926
Peak year
1926
8 that year
First recorded
1926
Last recorded
1941
All-time count
30
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Melva

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

MelbaMelanyMeliaMelisaMelinaMelaniMelodieBelvaMelonyMelonieAlvaMeleaMellieMelodiElvaMelodyMelaniaMeleahMelodeeMelenaMelekMelizaMelaMele

Names with a curve like Melva

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Melva, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

TommieMariettaRethaJannieEarlineEddieJoeLupeFreidaNonaRetaFreddie

Sibling names for Melva

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 Melva

Top names of 1938, Melva's peak yearThe 1930s in fullOther names that peaked in 1937Girls' names starting with M