Melania
Melania was given to 198 girls in 2025, #1,172 among girls’ names; 3,573 Americans have been recorded with it since 1913 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 3,390 Americans named Melania and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (95% of everyone recorded); the median is 10 years old and half are between 6 and 19.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Melania by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Melania mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Melania is “a female given name.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Melania?
#1,172 among girls’ names, 2025
Melania rose from #2,111 in 2015 to #1,172 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 0.05 to 0.12 per 1,000.
283 babies in 2017, the peak
Melania peaked in 2017, when 283 girls were given it, #934 among girls’ names. The 198 births of 2025 are 70% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 198 | #1,172 | 0.12 |
| 2024 | 133 | #1,584 | 0.08 |
| 2023 | 113 | #1,799 | 0.07 |
| 2022 | 145 | #1,501 | 0.09 |
| 2021 | 154 | #1,414 | 0.09 |
| 2020 | 192 | #1,198 | 0.12 |
| 2019 | 210 | #1,148 | 0.13 |
| 2018 | 233 | #1,084 | 0.14 |
| 2017 | 283 | #934 | 0.16 |
| 2016 | 131 | #1,653 | 0.07 |
Every recorded year (88)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 92 | #2,111 | 0.05 |
| 2014 | 78 | #2,365 | 0.04 |
| 2013 | 97 | #2,010 | 0.06 |
| 2012 | 100 | #1,967 | 0.06 |
| 2011 | 99 | #1,996 | 0.06 |
| 2010 | 82 | #2,334 | 0.05 |
| 2009 | 72 | #2,587 | 0.04 |
| 2008 | 80 | #2,409 | 0.04 |
| 2007 | 79 | #2,415 | 0.04 |
| 2006 | 128 | #1,659 | 0.07 |
| 2005 | 124 | #1,627 | 0.07 |
| 2004 | 30 | #4,570 | 0.02 |
| 2003 | 9 | #11,000 | under 0.01 |
| 2002 | 14 | #7,689 | 0.01 |
| 2001 | 19 | #5,989 | 0.01 |
| 2000 | 16 | #6,691 | 0.01 |
| 1999 | 13 | #7,544 | 0.01 |
| 1998 | 13 | #7,385 | 0.01 |
| 1997 | 13 | #7,135 | 0.01 |
| 1996 | 20 | #4,988 | 0.01 |
| 1995 | 12 | #7,362 | 0.01 |
| 1994 | 16 | #5,886 | 0.01 |
| 1993 | 11 | #7,864 | 0.01 |
| 1992 | 15 | #6,192 | 0.01 |
| 1991 | 19 | #5,110 | 0.01 |
| 1990 | 19 | #4,988 | 0.01 |
| 1989 | 9 | #8,486 | under 0.01 |
| 1988 | 15 | #5,495 | 0.01 |
| 1987 | 13 | #5,812 | 0.01 |
| 1986 | 9 | #7,516 | 0.01 |
| 1985 | 21 | #3,937 | 0.01 |
| 1984 | 10 | #6,596 | 0.01 |
| 1983 | 9 | #7,083 | 0.01 |
| 1982 | 12 | #5,769 | 0.01 |
| 1981 | 18 | #4,272 | 0.01 |
| 1980 | 18 | #4,245 | 0.01 |
| 1979 | 10 | #6,516 | 0.01 |
| 1978 | 18 | #4,018 | 0.01 |
| 1977 | 9 | #6,669 | 0.01 |
| 1976 | 12 | #5,082 | 0.01 |
| 1975 | 14 | #4,494 | 0.01 |
| 1974 | 15 | #4,158 | 0.01 |
| 1973 | 11 | #5,079 | 0.01 |
| 1972 | 11 | #4,979 | 0.01 |
| 1971 | 9 | #5,840 | 0.01 |
| 1970 | 10 | #5,285 | 0.01 |
| 1969 | 11 | #4,624 | 0.01 |
| 1968 | 8 | #5,470 | under 0.01 |
| 1967 | 9 | #4,850 | 0.01 |
| 1966 | 12 | #3,875 | 0.01 |
| 1965 | 10 | #4,402 | 0.01 |
| 1964 | 11 | #4,259 | 0.01 |
| 1963 | 8 | #5,153 | under 0.01 |
| 1962 | 7 | #5,653 | under 0.01 |
| 1961 | 6 | #6,329 | under 0.01 |
| 1960 | 6 | #6,150 | under 0.01 |
| 1959 | 8 | #4,891 | under 0.01 |
| 1957 | 11 | #3,855 | 0.01 |
| 1952 | 6 | #5,332 | under 0.01 |
| 1951 | 9 | #3,898 | under 0.01 |
| 1940 | 6 | #4,190 | 0.01 |
| 1939 | 6 | #4,105 | 0.01 |
| 1931 | 5 | #4,760 | under 0.01 |
| 1929 | 8 | #3,587 | 0.01 |
| 1928 | 5 | #5,194 | under 0.01 |
| 1927 | 9 | #3,471 | 0.01 |
| 1926 | 7 | #4,153 | 0.01 |
| 1924 | 10 | #3,293 | 0.01 |
| 1922 | 6 | #4,834 | under 0.01 |
| 1921 | 9 | #3,582 | 0.01 |
| 1920 | 6 | #4,765 | 0.01 |
| 1919 | 5 | #5,319 | under 0.01 |
| 1918 | 9 | #3,422 | 0.01 |
| 1917 | 12 | #2,652 | 0.01 |
| 1916 | 8 | #3,455 | 0.01 |
| 1915 | 9 | #3,053 | 0.01 |
| 1914 | 8 | #2,790 | 0.01 |
| 1913 | 8 | #2,470 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Melania a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Melania has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 88 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Melania: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Melania, and how old are they?
3,390 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 95% of the 3,573 Americans ever recorded as Melania. The median Melania alive today is 10 years old; half are between 6 and 19.
The 2020 Census counted 4,437 people named Melania (4,429 women and girls, 8 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 2,529 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1.8 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 6 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 59 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 174 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 222 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 883 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 2,050 |
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 Melania born?
The states with the most babies named Melania are California, New York and Texas, with 43% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 26 | #1,043 | 1.1× |
| New York | 23 | #721 | 1.6× |
| Texas | 21 | #1,251 | 0.6× |
| Florida | 19 | #853 | 1.4× |
| Illinois | 19 | #537 | 1.2× |
| New Jersey | 13 | #601 | 1.7× |
| Pennsylvania | 9 | #985 | 0.7× |
| Washington | 8 | #787 | 0.4× |
| Michigan | 7 | #1,027 | 0.4× |
| Tennessee | 6 | #1,084 | 0.3× |
Where Melania is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Melania is most over-represented in New Jersey: since 1913 it was given 1.7 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 Melania 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 321,228 babies since 1880, Melania is the seventh most given (1.1% of them). In 2025 it was given to 198 of their 4,244 babies (4.7%), the sixth 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 Melania
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 Melania and names like it
- Compare Melania and MelanieBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sMelania peaked in 2017.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Melania since 1910.
- The top names of 2017The year the most babies were named Melania.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Melania alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with MMost given first.