Melba
From Spanish, meaning "beautiful town".
Name Census estimates that about 9,050 living Americans carry the first name Melba. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Melba today is around 73 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Melba births was 1924 (1,003 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Melba. 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
- • Although Melba is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 52 boys registered with the name since 1880.
- • The typical person named Melba is about 73 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Melbas were born before 1963.
People living today
9.1K
~ 1 in 37,873 Americans
Peak year
1924
1,003 babies that year
Average age
73
years old
1941 SSA rank
#3,043
Tracked since 1893
Census
Melba in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 15,842 people with the first name Melba, which placed it at #1,839 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
#1,839
National first-name rank
People counted
16K
15,842 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
5.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
59.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Melba
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Melba is White at 59.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (21.9%) and Black (12.4%). 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 Melba 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 Melba at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White59.1% · 9,356
- Hispanic or Latino21.9% · 3,473
- Black or African American12.4% · 1,970
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.1% · 654
- Two or more races1.8% · 282
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 107
Gender
Gender distribution for Melba
Out of the 34,918 babies given the name Melba since 1880, 99.9% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Melba as a male name
- Ranked #3,043 in 1941
- 7 male births in 1941
- Peak: 1921 (9 births)
Melba as a female name
- Ranked #11,750 in 2024
- 8 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1924 (998 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Melba appears almost entirely female. Of the 15,851 people counted with this name, 99.8% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Melba: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Melba from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 9,124 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
Melba 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 Melba during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Melbas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 44 states and territories. Texas, Missouri, Arkansas recorded the most babies named Melba, while Wyoming, Rhode Island, Vermont recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 704 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Melba
The name Melba originates from the Spanish word "alba," meaning "dawn" or "white." It is believed to have been derived from the Latin word "albus," which also translates to "white." The name first gained popularity in the late 19th century.
Melba is thought to be a feminine form of the Spanish name Melchor, which is one of the traditional names given to the Three Kings or Wise Men in the Nativity story. The name Melchor is derived from the Hebrew "Malki-Or," meaning "king of light."
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Melba dates back to the late 19th century when it was given to Australian opera singer Dame Nellie Melba (1861-1931). Her real name was Helen Porter Mitchell, but she adopted the stage name Melba after her hometown of Melbourne, Australia.
Another notable historical figure named Melba was American singer and actress Melba Moore (born 1945). She is best known for her hit songs "This Is It" and "Falling" in the 1980s.
Melba Pattillo Beals (born 1941) was one of the Little Rock Nine, a group of African American students who desegregated Little Rock Central High School in 1957. She later wrote a memoir about her experiences titled "Warriors Don't Cry."
Melba Liston (1926-1999) was an American jazz trombonist, arranger, and composer. She was known for her work with renowned musicians such as Dizzy Gillespie, Billie Holiday, and Quincy Jones.
Melba Hernandez (born 1945) is a Cuban-American businesswoman and former political activist. She was part of the anti-Castro movement in the 1960s and later became a successful entrepreneur in the real estate industry.
People
Melba + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Melba 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
Melba: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Melba?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 9,050 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Melba 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 37,873 US residents.
Is Melba a common name?
We classify Melba as "Rare". It ranks above 97.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 34,918 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Melba most popular?
The single biggest year for Melba was 1924, when 1,003 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Melba is about 73 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Melba in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 15,842 people with the name Melba, or 5.25 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,839 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 Melba 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 Melba?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Melba appears almost entirely female. Of the 15,851 people counted with this name, 99.8% 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 Melba?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Melba is White at 59.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (21.9%) and Black (12.4%). 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 Melba most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Melba in the 2020 Census, accounting for 59.1% (9,356 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 Melba in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Melba a female name?
Yes, 99.9% of people registered as Melba 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 Melba still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Melba 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 Melba 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 common is the name Melba?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many Americans are named Melba at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.