Melena
Melena was given to 8 girls in 2025, #11,573 among girls’ names; 1,254 Americans have been recorded with it since 1957 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,220 Americans named Melena and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 27 years old and half are between 20 and 46.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Melena by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Melena?
#11,573 among girls’ names, 2025
Melena fell from #8,773 in 2015 to #11,573 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 7.3 to 5.0 per million.
52 babies in 2001, the peak
Melena peaked in 2001, when 52 girls were given it, #2,831 among girls’ names. The 8 births of 2025 are 15% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 8 | #11,573 | 5.0 |
| 2024 | 14 | #7,832 | 8.6 |
| 2023 | 10 | #10,087 | 6.2 |
| 2022 | 10 | #10,160 | 6.1 |
| 2021 | 13 | #8,317 | 7.9 |
| 2020 | 8 | #11,776 | 4.9 |
| 2019 | 11 | #9,531 | 6.6 |
| 2018 | 12 | #8,979 | 7.1 |
| 2017 | 12 | #9,155 | 7.0 |
| 2016 | 14 | #8,261 | 7.9 |
Every recorded year (64)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 13 | #8,773 | 7.3 |
| 2014 | 16 | #7,533 | 9.0 |
| 2013 | 16 | #7,628 | 9.1 |
| 2012 | 22 | #6,047 | 12.5 |
| 2011 | 21 | #6,271 | 11.9 |
| 2010 | 10 | #10,965 | 5.6 |
| 2009 | 23 | #6,025 | 12.5 |
| 2008 | 31 | #4,837 | 16.4 |
| 2007 | 40 | #3,959 | 20.8 |
| 2006 | 38 | #3,968 | 20.0 |
| 2005 | 36 | #4,004 | 19.5 |
| 2004 | 35 | #4,060 | 19.1 |
| 2003 | 35 | #3,925 | 19.2 |
| 2002 | 48 | #3,044 | 26.7 |
| 2001 | 52 | #2,831 | 28.9 |
| 2000 | 36 | #3,631 | 19.8 |
| 1999 | 45 | #2,969 | 25.4 |
| 1998 | 21 | #5,066 | 11.9 |
| 1997 | 18 | #5,546 | 10.3 |
| 1996 | 26 | #4,139 | 14.8 |
| 1995 | 30 | #3,635 | 17.1 |
| 1994 | 20 | #4,957 | 11.2 |
| 1993 | 25 | #4,192 | 13.8 |
| 1992 | 17 | #5,632 | 9.2 |
| 1991 | 18 | #5,314 | 9.6 |
| 1990 | 15 | #6,023 | 7.9 |
| 1989 | 13 | #6,399 | 7.1 |
| 1988 | 7 | #9,957 | 3.9 |
| 1987 | 10 | #7,143 | 5.8 |
| 1986 | 9 | #7,517 | 5.2 |
| 1985 | 12 | #5,912 | 7.0 |
| 1984 | 11 | #6,141 | 6.5 |
| 1983 | 15 | #4,809 | 9.0 |
| 1982 | 14 | #5,101 | 8.3 |
| 1981 | 14 | #5,138 | 8.4 |
| 1980 | 19 | #4,087 | 11.4 |
| 1979 | 20 | #3,861 | 12.5 |
| 1978 | 20 | #3,719 | 13.1 |
| 1977 | 22 | #3,446 | 14.3 |
| 1976 | 21 | #3,363 | 14.3 |
| 1975 | 31 | #2,546 | 21.3 |
| 1974 | 29 | #2,592 | 19.8 |
| 1973 | 21 | #3,189 | 14.4 |
| 1972 | 19 | #3,361 | 12.5 |
| 1971 | 22 | #3,118 | 13.2 |
| 1970 | 18 | #3,523 | 10.3 |
| 1969 | 14 | #3,903 | 8.3 |
| 1968 | 17 | #3,262 | 10.4 |
| 1967 | 15 | #3,432 | 9.1 |
| 1966 | 5 | #7,252 | 3.0 |
| 1965 | 8 | #5,137 | 4.5 |
| 1964 | 12 | #4,027 | 6.3 |
| 1962 | 11 | #4,188 | 5.6 |
| 1957 | 6 | #5,853 | 2.9 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Melena a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Melena has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 64 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Melena: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Melena, and how old are they?
1,220 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 97% of the 1,254 Americans ever recorded as Melena. The median Melena alive today is 27 years old; half are between 20 and 46.
The 2020 Census counted 1,194 people named Melena (1,189 women and girls, 5 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,166 born in the U.S. The Census count is 2% above that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 25 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 281 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 249 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 505 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 156 |
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).
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 54,549 babies since 1880, Melena is the sixth most given (2.3% of them). In 2025 it was given to 8 of their 1,686 babies (<1%), the seventh 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 Melena
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 Melena and names like it
- Compare Melena and MelinaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sMelena peaked in 2001.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Melena since 1910.
- The top names of 2001The year the most babies were named Melena.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Melena alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with MMost given first.