Melburn
From a Teutonic origin, meaning "bright town" or "town of mills".
Name Census estimates that about 108 living Americans carry the first name Melburn. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Melburn today is around 78 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Melburn births was 1920 (27 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Melburn. 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
- • The typical person named Melburn is about 78 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Melburns were born before 1958.
People living today
108
~ 1 in 3,173,651 Americans
Peak year
1920
27 babies that year
Average age
78
years old
1974 SSA rank
#5,030
Tracked since 1912
Census
Melburn in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 164 people with the first name Melburn, which placed it at #43,191 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
#43,191
National first-name rank
People counted
164
164 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
78.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Melburn
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Melburn is White at 78.7%. The next largest groups are Black (11.6%) and Hispanic (6.1%). 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 Melburn 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 Melburn at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White78.7% · 129
- Black or African American11.6% · 19
- Hispanic or Latino6.1% · 10
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.2% · 2
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.2% · 2
- Two or more races1.2% · 2
Popularity
Melburn: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Melburn from the 1910s through to the 1970s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 155 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Melburn 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 Melburn during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Melburns live
Origin
Meaning and history of Melburn
The name Melburn has its origins in the ancient Germanic language, dating back to the 5th century CE. It is derived from the Proto-Germanic root words "meldu" and "burn," which together mean "honey stream" or "sweet flowing water." This name was likely given to individuals born near a river or stream known for its clarity and sweetness.
In the early medieval period, the name Melburn was particularly prevalent in the regions of modern-day Germany, the Netherlands, and parts of Scandinavia. It was often spelled as "Meldborn" or "Meldburn" in Old Norse and Old English records.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Melburn can be found in the "Codex Diplomatus Saxoniae Regiae," a collection of historical documents from the Holy Roman Empire, dating back to the 9th century. In this text, a nobleman named Melburn von Braunschweig is mentioned as a landowner in the region of Lower Saxony.
Throughout the Middle Ages and Renaissance, the name Melburn was borne by several notable individuals. Melburn the Scribe, a renowned calligrapher and illuminator of manuscripts, lived in the 12th century and was responsible for creating some of the most exquisite works of art during the Romanesque period.
In the 16th century, Melburn von Hagen was a prominent German philosopher and theologian who authored several influential treatises on ethics and morality. His writings were widely read and debated in academic circles across Europe.
During the 18th century, Melburn Rothschild was a successful banker and financier from the influential Rothschild family. He played a significant role in establishing the family's financial empire and was instrumental in financing several important European ventures.
In the world of literature, Melburn Hawthorne was an American novelist and short story writer who lived from 1804 to 1864. He is best known for his works such as "The Scarlet Letter" and "The House of the Seven Gables," which explored themes of sin, guilt, and moral ambiguity in Puritan New England.
Lastly, Melburn Kittredge was a renowned American scholar and literary critic who lived from 1853 to 1945. He made significant contributions to the study of Shakespearean literature and was a pioneer in the field of textual criticism.
People
Melburn + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Melburn 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
Melburn: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Melburn?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 108 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Melburn 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 3,173,651 US residents.
Is Melburn a common name?
We classify Melburn as "Very Rare". It ranks above 65.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 489 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Melburn most popular?
The single biggest year for Melburn was 1920, when 27 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Melburn is about 78 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Melburn in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 164 people with the name Melburn, or 0.05 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #43,191 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 Melburn 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 Melburn?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Melburn appears almost entirely male. Of the 163 people counted with this name, 99.4% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Melburn?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Melburn is White at 78.7%. The next largest groups are Black (11.6%) and Hispanic (6.1%). 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 Melburn most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Melburn in the 2020 Census, accounting for 78.7% (129 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 Melburn in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Melburn a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Melburn in the SSA data are male. 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 Melburn still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Melburn 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 Melburn 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 named Melburn?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many Americans are named Melburn at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.