Melinda
A feminine name of Germanic origin meaning "strong worker" or "protector".
Name Census estimates that about 114,066 living Americans carry the first name Melinda. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Melinda today is around 53 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Melinda births was 1970 (4,236 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Melinda. 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 Melinda with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Melinda is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 337 boys registered with the name since 1880.
- • Compared to the 1970s, recent registration numbers for Melinda have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
114K
~ 1 in 3,005 Americans
Peak year
1970
4,236 babies that year
Average age
53
years old
1994 SSA rank
#2,104
Tracked since 1880
Census
Melinda in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 118,803 people with the first name Melinda, which placed it at #475 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
#475
National first-name rank
People counted
119K
118,803 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
39.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
77.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Melinda
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Melinda is White at 77.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (9.7%) and Black (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 Melinda 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 Melinda at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White77.3% · 91,853
- Hispanic or Latino9.7% · 11,511
- Black or African American6.1% · 7,232
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.1% · 3,663
- Two or more races3.0% · 3,527
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 1,017
Gender
Gender distribution for Melinda
Out of the 136,061 babies given the name Melinda since 1880, 99.8% 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.
Melinda as a male name
- Ranked #9,770 in 1994
- 5 male births in 1994
- Peak: 1971 (19 births)
Melinda as a female name
- Ranked #2,104 in 2024
- 91 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1970 (4,225 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Melinda appears almost entirely female. Of the 118,796 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Melinda: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Melinda from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 36,577 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Melinda 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 Melinda during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Melindas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, Ohio recorded the most babies named Melinda, while Wyoming, Delaware, Rhode Island recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 2,592 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Melinda
Melinda is a feminine given name of English origin, derived from the Greek words "meli" meaning "honey" and "linda" meaning "soft, tender, or sweet." The name first emerged in England during the Middle Ages, around the 12th or 13th century.
One of the earliest known bearers of the name was Melinda, Countess of Roucy, who lived in the late 12th century and was the wife of Hugues IV, Count of Roucy. The name also appears in the medieval romance "The Squire's Tale" by Geoffrey Chaucer, written in the late 14th century.
In the 16th century, Melinda was a character in the pastoral play "Il Sacrificio" by Italian playwright Agostino Beccari. This helped popularize the name in Italy. Another notable Melinda from this era was Melinda de Cabrera, a Spanish noblewoman who lived in the late 16th century.
During the 17th century, the name gained popularity in England and Scotland. One notable bearer was Melinda, Lady Saltoun, who lived from 1610 to 1658 and was the wife of Alexander Fraser, 10th Lord Saltoun.
In the 18th century, the name was used by the English novelist and playwright Aphra Behn for one of her characters in the play "The Rover." This further contributed to its popularity in English-speaking countries.
Other notable Melindas throughout history include Melinda Gayman, an American Revolutionary War heroine who lived from 1753 to 1827, and Melinda Crail, an American suffragette and activist born in 1844.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Melinda
People
Melinda + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Melinda 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
Melinda: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Melinda?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 114,066 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Melinda 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 3,005 US residents.
Is Melinda a common name?
We classify Melinda as "Common". It ranks above 99.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 136,061 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Melinda most popular?
The single biggest year for Melinda was 1970, when 4,236 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Melinda is about 53 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Melinda in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 118,803 people with the name Melinda, or 39.33 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #475 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 Melinda 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 Melinda?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Melinda appears almost entirely female. Of the 118,796 people counted with this name, 99.9% 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 Melinda?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Melinda is White at 77.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (9.7%) and Black (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 Melinda most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Melinda in the 2020 Census, accounting for 77.3% (91,853 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 Melinda in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Melinda a female name?
Yes, 99.8% of people registered as Melinda 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 Melinda still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Melinda 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 Melinda 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 Americans are named Melinda?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.