Merl
An English masculine name having Old English roots and meaning "peaceful."
Name Census estimates that about 709 living Americans carry the first name Merl. It is a predominantly male name (90.3% of registrations). The average person named Merl today is around 74 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Merl births was 1922 (92 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Merl. 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.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Merl is about 74 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Merls were born before 1962.
People living today
709
~ 1 in 483,433 Americans
Peak year
1922
92 babies that year
Average age
74
years old
1986 SSA rank
#7,264
Tracked since 1886
Census
Merl in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 944 people with the first name Merl, which placed it at #12,955 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
#12,955
National first-name rank
People counted
944
944 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
83.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Merl
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Merl is White at 83.3%. The next largest groups are Black (9.4%) and Two or More Races (3.2%). 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 Merl 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 Merl at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White83.3% · 786
- Black or African American9.4% · 89
- Two or more races3.2% · 30
- Hispanic or Latino1.9% · 18
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.2% · 11
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 10
Gender
Gender distribution for Merl
Merl leans heavily male at 90.3% of total registrations, but 278 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Merl as a male name
- Ranked #7,446 in 1986
- 5 male births in 1986
- Peak: 1922 (83 births)
Merl as a female name
- Ranked #7,264 in 1966
- 5 female births in 1966
- Peak: 1920 (15 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Merl leans strongly male. 805 people counted with this name were male (85.6%), compared with 135 female bearers (14.4%).
Popularity
Merl: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Merl from the 1880s through to the 1980s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 791 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Merl 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 Merl during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Merls live
The SSA's state-level files cover 18 states and territories. Indiana, Pennsylvania, Ohio recorded the most babies named Merl, while Wisconsin, Louisiana, West Virginia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 34 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Merl
The name Merl originates from the Old English language and can be traced back to the Anglo-Saxon period in Britain, around the 5th to 11th centuries AD. It is derived from the Old English word "mere," which means a lake or a pool of water. The name was likely given to individuals who lived near or by a body of water.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Merl can be found in the Domesday Book, a historical record compiled in 1086 AD by order of William the Conqueror. In this record, a landowner named Merl is mentioned as holding lands in the county of Berkshire, England.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Merl. One of the most famous was Merl Saunders (1934-2008), an American musician and multi-instrumentalist who was a member of the band The Grateful Dead. He was renowned for his innovative keyboard playing and was a pioneer of the electrified sound in rock music.
Another individual of note was Merl Reagle (1950-2015), an American constructor of crossword puzzles and a member of the prestigious National Puzzlers' League. He was widely respected for his creative and challenging puzzles, which appeared in numerous publications, including The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times.
In the field of science, Merl Kilgore (1892-1975) was an American chemist and inventor who made significant contributions to the development of polyethylene plastics. He held numerous patents and played a crucial role in the commercial production of this widely used material.
The name Merl has also been associated with literary figures. Merl Jasper (1926-2018) was an American author and educator who wrote several novels and short stories, many of which explored themes of rural life and the experiences of Native Americans.
While the name Merl may not be as common today as it once was, it has a rich history and has been borne by individuals who have left their mark across various fields, from music and puzzles to science and literature.
People
Merl + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Merl 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
Merl: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Merl?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 709 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Merl 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 483,433 US residents.
Is Merl a common name?
We classify Merl as "Very Rare". It ranks above 87.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,852 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Merl most popular?
The single biggest year for Merl was 1922, when 92 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Merl is about 74 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Merl in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 944 people with the name Merl, or 0.31 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #12,955 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 Merl 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 Merl?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Merl leans strongly male. 805 people counted with this name were male (85.6%), compared with 135 female bearers (14.4%). 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 Merl?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Merl is White at 83.3%. The next largest groups are Black (9.4%) and Two or More Races (3.2%). 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 Merl most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Merl in the 2020 Census, accounting for 83.3% (786 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 Merl in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Merl a male name?
Yes, 90.3% of people registered as Merl in the SSA data are male. 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 Merl still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Merl 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 Merl 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 are called Merl?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.