Melea
A feminine name of Greek origin meaning "ash tree" or "honey".
Name Census estimates that about 1,012 living Americans carry the first name Melea. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Melea today is around 33 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Melea births was 2006 (32 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Melea. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Melea with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.0K
~ 1 in 338,690 Americans
Peak year
2006
32 babies that year
Average age
33
years old
2024 SSA rank
#12,969
Tracked since 1954
Census
Melea in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 941 people with the first name Melea, which placed it at #12,999 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
#12,999
National first-name rank
People counted
941
941 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
64.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Melea
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Melea is White at 64.8%. The next largest groups are Black (11.4%) and Two or More Races (10.4%). 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 Melea 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 Melea at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White64.8% · 610
- Black or African American11.4% · 107
- Two or more races10.4% · 98
- Hispanic or Latino9.0% · 85
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.4% · 32
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 9
Popularity
Melea: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Melea from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 227 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Melea 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 Melea during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Meleas live
Origin
Meaning and history of Melea
The given name Melea has its roots in the ancient Greek language and culture, originating around the 5th century BC. It is believed to be derived from the Greek word "meli," meaning honey, and may have been associated with sweetness, nourishment, or fertility in ancient times.
One of the earliest recorded mentions of the name Melea can be found in the works of the Greek poet Sappho, who lived on the island of Lesbos in the 6th century BC. In her poetry, she refers to a woman named Melea, suggesting that the name was in use during that era.
In ancient Greek mythology, there was a character named Melea, who was a nymph associated with the island of Samos. According to legend, she was the daughter of the river god Meles and was said to have nursed the infant god Dionysus with honey.
During the Byzantine era, around the 6th century AD, there was a saint named Melea who was a nun and lived in a convent in Constantinople. She is venerated in the Eastern Orthodox Church, and her feast day is celebrated on October 31st.
One of the earliest known historical figures with the name Melea was a Greek noblewoman who lived in the 12th century AD. She was the wife of the Byzantine general and governor of Crete, Constantine Doukas.
Another notable figure with the name Melea was a Greek poet and scholar who lived in the 15th century AD. She was known for her works in both Greek and Latin and was part of the intellectual circle in Constantinople during the Renaissance era.
In the 16th century, there was a Venetian noblewoman named Melea Grimani, who was a patron of the arts and supported many artists and writers during her lifetime.
In the 18th century, Melea Tsakoni was a Greek revolutionary and fighter who participated in the Greek War of Independence against the Ottoman Empire.
Lastly, in the 19th century, Melea Kuloglou was a Greek writer and feminist activist who advocated for women's rights and education in Greece.
People
Melea + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Melea 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
Melea: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Melea?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,012 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Melea 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 338,690 US residents.
Is Melea a common name?
We classify Melea as "Rare". It ranks above 90.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,082 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Melea most popular?
The single biggest year for Melea was 2006, when 32 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Melea is about 33 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Melea in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 941 people with the name Melea, or 0.31 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #12,999 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 Melea 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 Melea?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Melea appears almost entirely female. Of the 936 people counted with this name, 99.7% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Melea?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Melea is White at 64.8%. The next largest groups are Black (11.4%) and Two or More Races (10.4%). 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 Melea most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Melea in the 2020 Census, accounting for 64.8% (610 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 Melea in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Melea a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Melea 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 Melea still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Melea 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 Melea 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 share the name Melea?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.