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Melvyn

Boys' name

Variant of Melvin

Melvyn has been given to 4,370 babies in the U.S. since 1912. 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 293 recorded.

Babies named Melvyn, 2023

1 in 663,000

Melvyn over time, 1880–2025

BoysGirls
010020030018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Melvyn: meaning, origin, and history

Variant of Melvin

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Melvyn means

Melvyn is a variant of Melvin.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Melvyn is used in English.

Another recorded pronunciation is /ˈmɛl.vɪn/ for Melvyn.

Meaning behind the documented name family

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

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Melvin.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 4,360 boys were recorded with the name Melvyn between 1912 and 2023. Its highest annual count was 293 in 1938; its best national rank was #323 in 1938.

In the United States, 10 girls were recorded with the name Melvyn between 1929 and 1948. Its highest annual count was 5 in 1929; its best national rank was #5,057 in 1929.

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 Melvyn?

Melvyn had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2023, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2023
1 in 663,000
5 of 3,314,783 births
Among boys only
1 in 342,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2023
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
459,528 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Melvyn sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2023 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 459,528 children born in 2023 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Melvyn. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Melvyns were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Melvyn was born before 1941 — so the typical Melvyn is around 84 today.

Median birth year
1941
About 84 years old
Biggest decade
1940s
34.5% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
5.4%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
994
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1940s — 34.5% of all recorded uses (1,503).

Is Melvyn 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 (293)
Years since peak
87
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
31.6% average annual change
Best rank ever
#323
1938

Spellings of Melvyn

Melvyn is not the most common spelling — Melvin is, with 65.6% against Melvyn's 1.2%.

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 Melvyn is used

Across 1910–2025, Melvyn was most concentrated in Hawaii — about 1 in 6,667 boys, against 1 in 57,638 across all states with data. It was least common in Virginia (1 in —).

015 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Hawaii1 in 6,667
  2. 2New York1 in 14,286
  3. 3Illinois1 in 50,000
  4. 4Michigan1 in 50,000
  5. 5New Jersey1 in 50,000
  6. 6Pennsylvania1 in 50,000
  7. 7California1 in 100,000
  8. 8Louisiana1 in 100,000

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys 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. Melvyn has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Melvyn around the world

Where Melvyn 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
    1996–2017
    #4,812
    in 2017
  • France
    1973–2025
    #1,093
    in 2025
  • South Australia
    1944–1963
    #379
    in 1963

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.

Notable people named Melvyn

People whose public names include Melvyn, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Melvyn in other languages

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

MelvinMalvyn

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

Melvyn by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#323
1938
Peak year
1938
293 that year
First recorded
1912
Last recorded
2023
All-time count
4,360
Count in 2025
Under 5

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#5,057
1929
Peak year
1929
5 that year
First recorded
1929
Last recorded
1948
All-time count
10
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Melvyn

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

MeltonGavynMelDevynMelissaSevynKevynTrevynMelikJayvynMelfordMelvenMelvilleMervynMelchorMeloMelanieMelvinDonavynDravynMeldonMelburnMelecioMeliton

Names with a curve like Melvyn

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

BarbaraGayleCarolKayBettyDelmasJoyceGearldRayburnDickieMaxieLupe

Sibling names for Melvyn

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 Melvyn

Top names of 1938, Melvyn's peak yearThe 1930s in fullOther names that peaked in 1938Boys' names starting with M