# Melville (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/melville/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. Counts from the US Census Bureau; origin and etymology from Wiktionary; bearers from Wikidata. Data updated 2026-11-11.

A Scottish habitational surname from Old French of Norman origin, from Malleville in Normandy.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | French |
| Type | place, taken from where an ancestor lived or came from |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 4,355 |
| US rank (2010) | 7,623 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 70,894 people |
| Change since 2000 | +5.7% (4,119 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Who carries it

Share of people named Melville in the 2010 US Census by the Census's own race and ethnicity groups. The Census suppresses a share when the count behind it is small.

| Group | Share |
|---|---|
| White (not Hispanic) | 82% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 11% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 2.5% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 1.3% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.7% |
| Two or more races | 1.8% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Melville in the United States and Australia.

## People named Melville

- Herman Melville, American writer and poet (1819–1891)
- Sam Melville, American actor (1936–1989)
- Kerry Reid, Australian tennis player

## Similar surnames

Mulvihill.

## How to read these numbers

A Census count is people alive and counted in 2010, not births, and names occurring fewer than 100 times are not published at all. Ethnicity shares are the Census's own categories.