Merit
A feminine French name meaning "earned reward" or "due praise".
Name Census estimates that about 440 living Americans carry the first name Merit. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 56.3% of registrations being female. The average person named Merit today is around 13 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Merit births was 2023 (37 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Merit. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
People living today
440
~ 1 in 778,987 Americans
Peak year
2023
37 babies that year
Average age
13
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,338
Tracked since 1918
Census
Merit in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 613 people with the first name Merit, which placed it at #17,806 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#17,806
National first-name rank
People counted
613
613 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
71.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Merit
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Merit is White at 71.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (12.6%) and Black (8.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Merit described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Merit at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White71.9% · 441
- Hispanic or Latino12.6% · 77
- Black or African American8.2% · 50
- Two or more races4.2% · 26
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.3% · 14
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 5
Gender
Gender distribution for Merit
Merit is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 471 total registrations, 206 (43.7%) were male and 265 (56.3%) were female.
Merit as a male name
- Ranked #6,338 in 2024
- 14 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2014 (16 births)
Merit as a female name
- Ranked #7,446 in 2024
- 15 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2023 (26 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Merit on both sides of the split. Of the 608 people counted with this name, 233 were male (38.3%) and 375 were female (61.7%).
Popularity
Merit: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Merit from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 10 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 212 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Merit remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Merit by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Merit during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Merits live
Origin
Meaning and history of Merit
The name Merit is believed to have its origins in the ancient Egyptian language. It is derived from the Egyptian word "mry.t," which means "beloved" or "cherished." This name was popular among the ancient Egyptians and can be traced back to the early dynastic period, around 3100 BCE.
In ancient Egyptian texts, the name Merit is often associated with goddesses and princesses. One of the earliest known references is found in the Pyramid Texts, a collection of ancient Egyptian funerary inscriptions dating back to around 2400 BCE. Here, the name is mentioned in connection with the goddess Isis, who was considered the embodiment of devotion and motherly love.
During the New Kingdom period (1550-1070 BCE), the name Merit gained further prominence. Several notable women from this era bore the name, including Merit-Ptah, a high priestess of the god Ptah, and Merit-Amon, a chantress of the god Amon. These women held influential positions in the religious and social spheres of ancient Egyptian society.
In Greek and Roman times, the name Merit was often Hellenized or Latinized as "Merita" or "Meritia." One of the earliest recorded examples of this form is Meritia, a Roman woman mentioned in an inscription from the 1st century BCE.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who carried the name Merit or its variations:
1. Merit-Amon (c. 1400 BCE), a powerful Egyptian chantress and singer in the temple of Amon at Thebes.
2. Merit-Ptah (c. 1300 BCE), a high priestess of the god Ptah during the reign of Ramesses II.
3. Meritia (1st century BCE), a Roman woman mentioned in an inscription from the city of Pompeii.
4. Merit-Seger (c. 1200 BCE), an Egyptian princess and daughter of Ramesses II.
5. Merit-Amun (c. 1000 BCE), an Egyptian noble woman and wife of the High Priest of Amon, Amenhotep.
While the name Merit is rooted in ancient Egyptian culture, it has been adopted and adapted by various other civilizations over time, reflecting the enduring appeal and significance of this name throughout history.
People
Merit + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Merit as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with M
Other first names starting with M with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Merit: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Merit?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 440 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Merit going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 778,987 US residents.
Is Merit a common name?
We classify Merit as "Very Rare". It ranks above 83.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 471 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Merit most popular?
The single biggest year for Merit was 2023, when 37 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Merit is about 13 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Merit in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 613 people with the name Merit, or 0.20 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #17,806 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Merit in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Merit?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Merit on both sides of the split. Of the 608 people counted with this name, 233 were male (38.3%) and 375 were female (61.7%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Merit?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Merit is White at 71.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (12.6%) and Black (8.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Merit most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Merit in the 2020 Census, accounting for 71.9% (441 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Merit in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Merit a female name?
Yes, 56.3% of people registered as Merit in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Merit still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Merit in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Merit can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people share the name Merit?
Want to know how many people share the name Merit? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.