Melani
Melani was given to 234 girls in 2025, #1,056 among girls’ names; 5,912 Americans have been recorded with it since 1947 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 5,750 Americans named Melani and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 16 years old and half are between 7 and 32.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Melani by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Melani mean?
Wiktionary, Spanish section
Melani is “a female given name, equivalent to English Melanie”
/meˈlani/
Meaning: Wiktionary, Spanish section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Melani?
#1,056 among girls’ names, 2025
Melani rose from #1,754 in 2015 to #1,056 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 0.07 to 0.15 per 1,000.
258 babies in 2020, the peak
Melani peaked in 2020, when 258 girls were given it, #990 among girls’ names. The 234 births of 2025 are 91% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 234 | #1,056 | 0.15 |
| 2024 | 254 | #1,010 | 0.16 |
| 2023 | 227 | #1,088 | 0.14 |
| 2022 | 227 | #1,103 | 0.14 |
| 2021 | 222 | #1,114 | 0.14 |
| 2020 | 258 | #990 | 0.16 |
| 2019 | 235 | #1,074 | 0.14 |
| 2018 | 205 | #1,176 | 0.12 |
| 2017 | 165 | #1,397 | 0.10 |
| 2016 | 147 | #1,538 | 0.08 |
Every recorded year (78)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 120 | #1,754 | 0.07 |
| 2014 | 130 | #1,648 | 0.07 |
| 2013 | 101 | #1,963 | 0.06 |
| 2012 | 141 | #1,557 | 0.08 |
| 2011 | 108 | #1,867 | 0.06 |
| 2010 | 134 | #1,619 | 0.08 |
| 2009 | 142 | #1,590 | 0.08 |
| 2008 | 170 | #1,404 | 0.09 |
| 2007 | 163 | #1,450 | 0.08 |
| 2006 | 179 | #1,313 | 0.09 |
| 2005 | 126 | #1,612 | 0.07 |
| 2004 | 114 | #1,707 | 0.06 |
| 2003 | 116 | #1,664 | 0.06 |
| 2002 | 98 | #1,836 | 0.05 |
| 2001 | 71 | #2,274 | 0.04 |
| 2000 | 66 | #2,356 | 0.04 |
| 1999 | 53 | #2,660 | 0.03 |
| 1998 | 41 | #3,094 | 0.02 |
| 1997 | 32 | #3,589 | 0.02 |
| 1996 | 35 | #3,336 | 0.02 |
| 1995 | 26 | #4,054 | 0.01 |
| 1994 | 25 | #4,201 | 0.01 |
| 1993 | 26 | #4,060 | 0.01 |
| 1992 | 33 | #3,385 | 0.02 |
| 1991 | 43 | #2,765 | 0.02 |
| 1990 | 37 | #3,047 | 0.02 |
| 1989 | 43 | #2,632 | 0.02 |
| 1988 | 38 | #2,771 | 0.02 |
| 1987 | 37 | #2,693 | 0.02 |
| 1986 | 18 | #4,468 | 0.01 |
| 1985 | 17 | #4,578 | 0.01 |
| 1984 | 37 | #2,549 | 0.02 |
| 1983 | 29 | #2,954 | 0.02 |
| 1982 | 41 | #2,403 | 0.02 |
| 1981 | 30 | #2,958 | 0.02 |
| 1980 | 62 | #1,779 | 0.04 |
| 1979 | 50 | #2,038 | 0.03 |
| 1978 | 42 | #2,220 | 0.03 |
| 1977 | 51 | #1,939 | 0.03 |
| 1976 | 58 | #1,691 | 0.04 |
| 1975 | 57 | #1,683 | 0.04 |
| 1974 | 49 | #1,811 | 0.03 |
| 1973 | 50 | #1,764 | 0.03 |
| 1972 | 61 | #1,532 | 0.04 |
| 1971 | 62 | #1,571 | 0.04 |
| 1970 | 31 | #2,429 | 0.02 |
| 1969 | 38 | #2,043 | 0.02 |
| 1968 | 34 | #2,079 | 0.02 |
| 1967 | 38 | #1,914 | 0.02 |
| 1966 | 33 | #2,041 | 0.02 |
| 1965 | 31 | #2,142 | 0.02 |
| 1964 | 45 | #1,742 | 0.02 |
| 1963 | 41 | #1,827 | 0.02 |
| 1962 | 44 | #1,722 | 0.02 |
| 1961 | 35 | #1,981 | 0.02 |
| 1960 | 28 | #2,228 | 0.01 |
| 1959 | 33 | #1,972 | 0.02 |
| 1958 | 30 | #2,055 | 0.01 |
| 1957 | 14 | #3,247 | 0.01 |
| 1956 | 22 | #2,433 | 0.01 |
| 1955 | 16 | #2,915 | 0.01 |
| 1954 | 12 | #3,438 | 0.01 |
| 1953 | 15 | #2,889 | 0.01 |
| 1952 | 7 | #4,783 | under 0.01 |
| 1951 | 9 | #3,897 | under 0.01 |
| 1949 | 8 | #4,119 | under 0.01 |
| 1948 | 7 | #4,489 | under 0.01 |
| 1947 | 5 | #5,840 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Melani a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Melani has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 78 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Melani: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Melani, and how old are they?
5,750 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 97% of the 5,912 Americans ever recorded as Melani. The median Melani alive today is 16 years old; half are between 7 and 32.
The 2020 Census counted 5,073 people named Melani (5,061 women and girls, 12 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 4,441 born in the U.S. The Census count is 14% above that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census records the name people give, which for many is the short form Melani rather than the name on their birth record, and it counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 306 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 696 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 501 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,740 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 2,510 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Melani born?
The states with the most babies named Melani are Texas, California and Florida, with 42% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 35 | #853 | 1.1× |
| California | 31 | #928 | 1.2× |
| Florida | 15 | #1,039 | 1.0× |
| New York | 12 | #1,212 | 0.7× |
| Michigan | 11 | #721 | 0.3× |
| North Carolina | 9 | #1,031 | 0.7× |
| Georgia | 8 | #1,165 | 0.8× |
| Illinois | 7 | #1,196 | 0.7× |
| Arizona | 7 | #882 | 1.0× |
| New Jersey | 7 | #1,002 | 0.5× |
Where Melani is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Melani is most over-represented in California: since 1947 it was given 1.2 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Melani with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 323,941 babies since 1880, Melani is the fourth most given (1.8% of them). In 2025 it was given to 234 of their 4,242 babies (5.5%), the fifth most given that year.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Melani
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Melani and names like it
- Compare Melani and MelanieBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sMelani peaked in 2020.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Melani since 1910.
- Spanish namesWiktionary’s origin for Melani: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2020The year the most babies were named Melani.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Melani alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with MMost given first.