Melvin
Top 1000
About Melvin
This once perfectly respectable surname has suffered decades of abuse, not least by Jerry Lewis's character in the fifties. NFL running back Melvin Gordon stars for the Los Angeles Chargers.
As of October 2026, Melvin ranked #959 in US births in 2025 SSA, peaked at #47 in 1926.
Editor's take: The name Melvin is a boy's name of English origin meaning "council protector".
Popularity & trends
Data table
| Year | US rank | Births | Per million |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | #665 | 386 | 201 |
| 2015 | #692 | 364 | 189.9 |
| 2016 | #729 | 336 | 177.1 |
| 2017 | #731 | 328 | 177.2 |
| 2018 | #720 | 333 | 183.4 |
| 2019 | #758 | 314 | 175 |
| 2020 | #752 | 323 | 187.1 |
| 2021 | #803 | 305 | 174.3 |
| 2022 | #828 | 300 | 171.8 |
| 2023 | #822 | 298 | 174.2 |
| 2024 | #872 | 275 | 159.6 |
| 2025 | #959 | 243 | 142.3 |
World rankings
Similar names
These 20 names were selected by our users looking for other names like Melvin.
- Stanford
- Alvin
- Marvin
- Roy
- Gerald
- Roger
- Norman
- Milton
- Marty
- Leroy
- Rudolph
- Karl
- Irwin
- Stuart
- Gérard
- Reginald
- Carleton
- Dale
- Arnold
- Ronald
Melvin on lists
Famous Melvins
- Melvin Lewis Calhoun. Jr. aka Kutt Calhoun
American rapper
- Melvin Belli
American lawyer known as 'The King of Torts'
- Melvin Bernhardt
American stage and television director
- Melvin Booker
American basketball player
- Melvin Brown
Mexican football player
- Melvin Bullitt
American football player
- Melvin Burgess
British author of children's fiction
- Melvin Calvin
American chemist who discovered the Calvin cycle
- Melvin Day
New Zealand artist and art historian
- Melvin Dummar
American hoaxer and subject of film Melvin and Howard
- Melvin Ely
American basketball player
- Melvin Edmonds
member of R&B group After 7
- Melvin Fowler
American football center
- Melvin Frank
American screenwriter and film director
- Melvin Franklin
stage name of American bass singer David Melvin English
- Melvin Gibbs
American bass guitarist
- Melvin Guillard
American mixed martial artist
- Melvin Hochster
American mathematician
- Melvin Jones
American football player
- Melvin Jones
founder of Lions Clubs International
- Melvin Kaminsky
given name of actor Mel Brooks
- Melvin Konner
Professor of Anthropology
- Melvin R. Laird
American politician and writer
- Melvin Maas
U.S. Representative from Minnesota
- Melvin Manhoef
Dutch kickboxer
- Melvin McQuaid
member of the Canadian House of Commons
- Melvin Mora
Major League baseball player
- Melvin Nieves
baseball player
- Melvin O'Doom
English comedian
- Melvin Ott
Major League Baseball right fielder
- Melvin Parker
American drummer who played in James Brown's band
- Melvin Van Peebles
American actor and director
- Melvin Platje
Dutch football player
- Melvin Purvis
American FBI agent
- Melvin Ragin
American guitarist known as 'Wah,Wah Watson'
- Melvin Rhyne
jazz organist
- Melvin Rosen
American track coach
- Melvin Schwartz
American physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1988
- Melvin Seals
American musician
- Melvin Sia
Malaysian,Chinese actor, singer, and model
- Melvin Sparks
American jazz guitarist
- Melvin Steinberg
Governor of Maryland from 1987 to 1995
- Melvin Stewart
American swimmer and Olympic medal winner
- Melvin Tarley
Liberian footballer
- Melvin B. Tolson
American modernist poet
- Melvin Alvah Traylor
American banker
- Melvin Alvah Traylor
Jr., American ornithologist
- Melvin Turpin
American basketball player
- Melvin Valladares
Honduran football striker
- Melvin Watkins
American basketball coach
- Melvin Zais
United States Army general
- Eric Scott Melvin
musician in American band NOFX
Melvin in pop culture
- Melvin Jones
main character in the film "Sailor Beware"
- Melvin Frohike
character on "The X,Files"
- Melvin "Big Smoke" Harris
character in the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
- Melvin Palmer
character on TV's Boston Legal
- Melvin the Superhero Guy
puppet of ventriloquist Jeff Dunham
- Melvin
the name given to the evil alter,ego of Marik Ishtar, in theYu,Gi,Oh! parody series Yu,gi,Oh! The Abridged Series
- Melvin Sneedly
character in Dav Pilkey's book series Captain Underpants
- Melvin the Monster
minor character from Tiny Toon Adventures
- Melvin Udall
Jack Nicholson's character in As Good as It Gets
- Melvin Butlers
nerd from the manga and anime Sailor Moon
- Melvin Wilder
lazy, arrogant farmhand in Jim Leonard Jr.s' play "The Diviners"
- Melvin
character in video game 'Dragon Warrior VII'
- Lough Melvin
lake on the border with the Republic of Ireland
- Melvins
American rock band
- The "Melvin"
national Scoutcraft Competition of Scouting Ireland (CSI)
- The Melvins
American band
- Melvin
term for a wedgie
- Melvin "Mel" Horowitz
character in the 1995 film "Clueless" & later the TV series "Clueless
- Melvin
character in the animated series “Invader Zim”