Humanverse

Melody vs Melquan

American parents have registered 115,084 Melodys since 1880, against 259 Melquans. Melody is still ahead, with 3,095 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Melody against Melquan, 1880 to 2025 0 800 1.6k 2.4k 3.2k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Melody Melquan

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

Melody has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1914 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1994, when Melody had 730 and Melquan had 21.

Side by side

  Melody Melquan
Total US births 115,084259
Most in one year 3,09526
Babies in 2025 3,095under 5
Estimated living today 107,000250
Median age today 3531
Peak year 20251992
Best rank 79th girls2,670th boys
Rank in 2025 79thunranked
First recorded 19141988
Girls / boys 114,914 / 1700 / 259

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 Melodys alive today are over 35; half the Melquans are over 31. That is 4 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Melody and Melquan.