Meladie
A feminine name derived from the French word "mélodie", meaning "melody" or "sweet tune".
Name Census estimates that about 60 living Americans carry the first name Meladie. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Meladie today is around 22 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Meladie births was 2011 (7 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Meladie. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Meladie. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
60
~ 1 in 5,712,572 Americans
Peak year
2011
7 babies that year
Average age
22
years old
2019 SSA rank
#17,177
Tracked since 1960
Census
Meladie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 131 people with the first name Meladie, which placed it at #48,547 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#48,547
National first-name rank
People counted
131
131 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
58.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Meladie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Meladie is White at 58.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (19.8%) and Black (13.0%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Meladie described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Meladie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White58.0% · 76
- Hispanic or Latino19.8% · 26
- Black or African American13.0% · 17
- Two or more races6.9% · 9
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.5% · 2
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.8% · 1
Popularity
Meladie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Meladie from the 1960s through to the 2010s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 35 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Meladie by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Meladie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Meladie
The name Meladie is a variation of the name Melody, which has its roots in the Greek language. The word "melos" in Greek means "song" or "music," and the name Melody is derived from this word. It is a relatively modern name, believed to have originated in the 19th century.
Meladie is a unique spelling variation of the name Melody, but it carries the same meaning and significance. While the name itself does not have a long historical record, its origins can be traced back to ancient Greek culture and their appreciation for music and the arts.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Melody can be found in the works of the English poet John Milton. In his epic poem "Paradise Lost," published in 1667, he used the phrase "melodious sound" to describe the singing of birds. This poetic use of the word "melodious" likely contributed to the eventual adoption of Melody as a given name.
Throughout history, there have been a few notable individuals who bore the name Meladie or its variations. One such person was Meladie Welkner, a German composer and pianist who lived in the late 18th century. She was known for her compositions for piano and chamber ensembles, which were widely performed during her lifetime.
Another notable figure was Melody Gardot, an American jazz singer and songwriter born in 1985. She gained recognition for her unique vocal style and her ability to blend various genres, including jazz, folk, and blues. Her album "My One and Only Thrill" received widespread critical acclaim and earned her a Grammy nomination.
In literature, one can find the character Melody Lacroix in the novel "The Time Traveler's Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger, published in 2003. Melody was the daughter of the main characters, Henry and Clare, and her name was chosen to symbolize the harmony and music that their love brought into their lives.
Another notable bearer of the name was Melody Thomas Scott, an American actress best known for her long-running role as Nikki Reed on the soap opera "The Young and the Restless." She has been portraying the character since 1979 and has won numerous awards for her performance.
Lastly, Melody Moezzi is an Iranian-American author, activist, and attorney. Born in 1979, she has written several books exploring her identity as a Muslim-American woman, including "War on Error: Real Stories of American Muslim Patriots" and "Haldol and Hyacinths: A Bipolar Life."
While the name Meladie may not have a long and storied history, its roots in Greek language and culture, as well as its association with music and harmony, have contributed to its enduring appeal as a given name throughout the centuries.
People
Meladie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Meladie as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with M
Other first names starting with M with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Meladie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Meladie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 60 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Meladie going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 5,712,572 US residents.
Is Meladie a common name?
We classify Meladie as "Very Rare". It ranks above 57.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 62 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Meladie most popular?
The single biggest year for Meladie was 2011, when 7 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Meladie is about 22 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Meladie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 131 people with the name Meladie, or 0.04 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #48,547 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Meladie in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Meladie?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Meladie leans strongly female. 131 people counted with this name were female (97.8%), compared with 3 male bearers (2.2%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Meladie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Meladie is White at 58.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (19.8%) and Black (13.0%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Meladie most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Meladie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 58.0% (76 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Meladie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Meladie a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Meladie in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Meladie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Meladie in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Meladie can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are called Meladie?
Find out how many Americans are named Meladie on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.