Meaning and background
The story behind Melvin
Melvin is an English given name that developed from a Scottish surname, historically a variant of Melville. Melville itself has Norman French place-name roots, connected with Malleville, often interpreted as bad town. That surprising distant origin does not make bad a meaningful description of a modern bearer. Melvin is a recognisable two-syllable human name with a surname-to-first-name history, quite separate from the English word mellow.
- Origin
- English given name from a Scottish surname variant of Melville, ultimately linked with the Norman French place-name Malleville. Source
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Everyday moments“Melvin, come here!”
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About Melvin
Recorded as a dog’s name
Melvin appears in 3 dog licence records in the 2026 New York City dataset.
How to read this count
These records cover New York City and may count the same dog in more than one licence period. They are not a national popularity ranking.
Pronunciation and rhythm
/mɛlvɪn/
US English sound sequence, converted from the CMU dictionary. Stress marks are shown separately.
Stress on the first syllable in the recorded US readings.
View dictionary notation
/mɛlvɪn/ · primary stress on syllable 1M EH1 L V IH0 N
These are US dictionary readings. Personal, regional and other language pronunciations may differ.
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Sources and research notes (2)
- New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene NYC Dog Licensing Dataset — extract_year 2026 — Dog licence periods, not unique dogs; NYC only. No owner-level fields retrieved.
- Carnegie Mellon University / CMU Sphinx maintainers CMU US English Pronouncing Dictionary — US English dictionary readings; not owner-specific or exhaustive multilingual pronunciation
References support the individual facts shown. A source link does not mean the entire profile has been verified.