Melba is an Australian-English invented name — derived from the city of Melbourne by Dame Nellie Melba, who chose it as her stage surname in 1887 to honor her hometown. **A top-500 US baby name from 1904 to 1949**. **Dame Nellie Melba (born Helen Porter Mitchell, 1861-1931)** — **Australian operatic soprano; the first Australian-born musician to gain international classical recognition; sang at La Scala Milan (1893 debut), the Royal Opera House Covent Garden (1888-1926), the Metropolitan Opera New York (1893-1910), and the Paris Opéra**. **Her signature roles were Mimì in *La bohème*, Marguerite in *Faust*, and Violetta in *La traviata***. **Two foods are named after her**: **Peach Melba** (Auguste Escoffier created it at the Savoy in London 1892 as a tribute) and **Melba toast** (also created by Escoffier — thin, twice-baked toast for her ill stomach). **Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (1918)**; her face appears on the Australian $100 note. **Melba Liston (1926-1999)** — American jazz trombonist; first African American woman jazz trombonist to record professionally; collaborated with Dizzy Gillespie, Quincy Jones, and Randy Weston; pioneer for women in jazz. **Melba Roy Mouton** (1929-1990) — American NASA mathematician; head of the Echo satellite tracking program at Goddard Space Flight Center. **Melba Pattillo Beals** — one of the Little Rock Nine (1957).
Featured throughout Australian, American, and African American cultural history.
Melba reduces to eight — the number of Australian $100 note.