Melvin

Where Melvin comes from

Variant of the Scottish surname Melville, from a place name Malleville in Normandy, from Latin mala (“bad”) + Old French ville (“settlement”). * Used to Anglicize Mac Gille Beathain in Scotland and Ó Maoil Mhín in Ireland.
— Wiktionary's entry for Melvin
  • 2 syllables
Along the way
  1. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #126 among boys — 103 babies in the first year on record.
  2. 1911
    Melvin Calvin born
    American biochemist
  3. 1926
    Peak, #47
    4,194 babies named Melvin — more than any year before or since.
  4. 1932
    Melvin Schwartz born
    American experimental physicist
  5. 1966
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #142.
In the dictionary
  • A male given name transferred from the surname.
Namesakes
  • Melvin Calvin · American biochemist, 1911–1997
  • Melvin Schwartz · American experimental physicist, 1932–2006
  • Melvin Laird · 20th-century American politician, 1922–2016
  • Melvin Twellaar · Dutch rower, born 1996
  • Melvin Frank · American screenwriter and director, 1913–1988

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.