Entry № 6737 · Australian origin

Melba Melba — Meaning, Origin & Baby Name Popularity

/ MEL-bah /
Gender
Girl
Origin
Australian
Meaning
"Of Melbourne (Dame Nellie Melba, opera; Peach Melba)"
Syllables
2
First recorded
Modern (English)

A name that means "of melbourne (dame nellie melba, opera; peach melba)".

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. 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.

Of Melbourne. Dame Nellie Melba's face is on the Australian $100 note; Peach Melba named after her in 1892.

The name in its native script.

Melba
Transliteration
Melba
Pronunciation
/ ˈmɛl.bə /
Root
Grammatical form

Where Melba stands.

Melba does not currently appear in the US Social Security Administration's top 1,000 girls' names, so we don't publish a US rank or birth count for it. That says nothing about the name's standing elsewhere in the world — only that it sits outside the ranked US data we rely on.

Melbas before her.

Real people
Dame Nellie Melba
Australian operatic soprano.
1861 – 1931
Melba Liston
American jazz trombonist.
1926 – 1999
Melba Roy Mouton
American NASA mathematician.
1929 – 1990
Melba Pattillo Beals
Little Rock Nine member.
born 1941
In fiction
Melba
Various Australian culture.

Names connected to Melba.

The number behind Melba.

6

The Nurturer

In Pythagorean numerology the letters of Melba reduce to 6, The Nurturer. This is a traditional interpretive system, not a factual claim about the name.