Melanie vs Melinda
American parents have registered 263,254 Melanies since 1880, against 136,159 Melindas. Melanie is still ahead, with 2,074 babies in 2025.
Babies given each name, 1880–2025
Melanie Melinda
Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.
Who was ahead
Of the 146 years in which either name was published, Melinda for 74 years and Melanie for 72 years. The lead changed hands 15 times.
- 1880–1925 Melinda ahead, apart from 3 short spells
- 1926–1928 Melanie ahead
- 1929–1958 Melinda ahead, apart from 2 short spells
- 1959–1964 Melanie ahead
- 1965–1969 Melinda ahead
- 1970–2025 Melanie ahead
5 shorter spells of a year or two are folded into the spans above rather than listed separately.
Side by side
| Melanie | Melinda | |
|---|---|---|
| Total US births | 263,254 | 136,159 |
| Most in one year | 6,320 | 4,236 |
| Babies in 2025 | 2,074 | 97 |
| Estimated living today | 247,000 | 121,000 |
| Median age today | 40 | 54 |
| Peak year | 1972 | 1970 |
| Best rank | 42nd girls | 93rd girls |
| Rank in 2025 | 142nd | 1,981st |
| First recorded | 1886 | 1880 |
| Girls / boys | 262,640 / 614 | 135,822 / 337 |
A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.
Which name is older
Half of the Melindas alive today are over 54; half the Melanies are over 40. That is 14 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.
Where each one is strongest
- Melanie Nevada (1.9×), Utah (1.7×), Hawaii (1.4×)
- Melinda Alaska (1.6×), Indiana (1.5×), West Virginia (1.4×)
How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.
Both names abroad
Countries whose statistics office publishes both names, so the comparison can be made somewhere other than the United States.
| Country | Melanie | Melinda |
|---|---|---|
| France | 133,925 Mélanie | 10,645 |
| Switzerland | 2,593 | 437 |
| England and Wales | 2,488 | 270 |
| Belgium | 2,015 Mélanie | 268 Mélinda |
| Scotland | 1,782 | 3 |
| Ireland | 1,235 | 65 |
| Norway | 328 | 202 |
| Poland | 268 | 2 |
Every spelling a country files separately is added together, over whatever years that country publishes — which is not the same range in any two of them, so read the columns against each other and not the rows.
Compare something else
Related comparisons
Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Melanie and Melinda.