Meaning and history
Melville is a given name transferred from a Scottish and Anglo-Norman surname. The surname comes from a Norman French place name, probably Malleville, whose elements mean “bad settlement” or refer to an otherwise unidentified locality; literal translation may not reflect why the place was named. Notable given-name bearers include American jurist Melville Fuller, chief justice of the United States, and American anthropologist Melville Herskovits. Herman Melville bore it as a surname, not a given name.
19191919: 56 births, rank #893
1920: 60 births, rank #894
1921: 56 births, rank #945
1922: 71 births, rank #798
1923: 58 births, rank #902
19241924: 66 births, rank #845
1925: no US SSA record for this spelling
1926: no US SSA record for this spelling
1927: 53 births, rank #961
1928: no US SSA record for this spelling
19291929: no US SSA record for this spelling
1930: 49 births, rank #972
1931: no US SSA record for this spelling
1932: no US SSA record for this spelling
1933: no US SSA record for this spelling
19341934: no US SSA record for this spelling
1935: no US SSA record for this spelling
1936: no US SSA record for this spelling
1937: no US SSA record for this spelling
19381938: 43 births, rank #973
Melville moved from #972 to #973 for boys between 1930 and 1938. Its highest annual birth count came in 1918, with 77 births.