Mel can be a nickname, short for Melanie, Melissa, Melvin or Melville. It is also a standalone name from the Gaelic Maol, meaning "follower of Jesus." People with this name include:

• Mel B and Mel C of the Spice Girls (short for Melanie)
• Mel Blanc, Mel Brooks, and Mel Lastman (short for Melvin)
• Mel Gibson, American film actor (standalone name)
• Mel Kaye, the archetypical Real Programmer lionized in "The Story of Mel"
• Mel Peachey, host of PlayMania (short for Melissa).
• Mel Smith, British actor, writer and director
• Mel Winfield, Canadian autodidact and inventor

Fictional characters

• Dr. Melanie Karnofsky, the second ex-wife of Niles Crane on the TV comedy Frasier
• Mel, a character on the children's television program Sesame Street, who appears primarily in the Monsters Clubhouse segments
• Melanie Bush, a character on the TV series Doctor Who
• Melanie Owen, an ex-character in TV soap Eastenders
• Mel Burton, a character in soap Hollyoaks
• Sideshow Mel, a minor character in The Simpsons

Others

• Mel, Italy, a commune in the province of Belluno (northern Italy)
• Mel scale, a scale for measuring musical pitches as perceived by the human ear
• Maya Embedded Language, a scripting language used in the 3D graphics program Maya.
• MEL, the IATA airport code for Melbourne, Australia