Merrell
A variant of the name Merrill, potentially of French origin meaning "dweller near the little pool".
Name Census estimates that about 592 living Americans carry the first name Merrell. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 88.2% of registrations being male. The average person named Merrell today is around 63 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Merrell births was 1927 (36 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Merrell. 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
592
~ 1 in 578,977 Americans
Peak year
1927
36 babies that year
Average age
63
years old
2015 SSA rank
#11,632
Tracked since 1911
Census
Merrell in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 740 people with the first name Merrell, which placed it at #15,509 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
#15,509
National first-name rank
People counted
740
740 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
67.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Merrell
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Merrell is White at 67.7%. The next largest groups are Black (24.3%) and Two or More Races (3.1%). 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 Merrell 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 Merrell at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White67.7% · 501
- Black or African American24.3% · 180
- Two or more races3.1% · 23
- Hispanic or Latino2.7% · 20
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.4% · 10
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.8% · 6
Gender
Gender distribution for Merrell
Merrell leans heavily male at 88.2% of total registrations, but 155 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Merrell as a male name
- Ranked #11,632 in 2015
- 6 male births in 2015
- Peak: 1915 (27 births)
Merrell as a female name
- Ranked #11,816 in 1985
- 5 female births in 1985
- Peak: 1927 (12 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Merrell on both sides of the split. Of the 745 people counted with this name, 548 were male (73.6%) and 197 were female (26.4%).
Popularity
Merrell: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Merrell from the 1910s through to the 2010s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 254 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
Merrell 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 Merrell during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Merrells live
Origin
Meaning and history of Merrell
The name Merrell is believed to have originated from the Old English language, with roots dating back to the 5th century AD. It is thought to be derived from the words "mere," meaning a boundary or border, and "hill," referring to a small hill or mound. Thus, the name Merrell may have originally been used to describe someone who lived near a boundary hill or marker.
During the Anglo-Saxon period in Britain, the name Merrell was likely used as a descriptive surname or place name before becoming a given name. It was common practice at the time to identify individuals by their location or physical characteristics.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Merrell can be found in the Domesday Book, a comprehensive survey of landowners and tenants commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. The name appears as "Merrill," possibly referring to a person or a place.
Throughout the Middle Ages and Renaissance period, the name Merrell remained in use, though its popularity varied across different regions of Europe. Notable individuals bearing this name include Merrell Vore (1576-1649), a Dutch explorer and navigator who charted parts of the Caribbean and South America.
In the 17th century, the name gained traction in England and Scotland. Merrell Livingston (1623-1688) was a Scottish merchant and landowner who played a significant role in the establishment of the Hudson's Bay Company.
As the British Empire expanded, the name Merrell traveled to various colonies and territories. Merrell Wilcox (1756-1819) was an American soldier who fought in the Revolutionary War, while Merrell Jameson (1802-1879) was a British explorer and surveyor who mapped parts of Africa and India.
In more recent times, the name Merrell has been associated with various fields, including sports and entertainment. Merrell Neville (1885-1935) was an English cricketer who played for Surrey and England, while Merrell Fankhauser (1936-2019) was an American singer and musician best known for his work with the surf rock band The Trashmen.
People
Merrell + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Merrell 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
Merrell: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Merrell?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 592 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Merrell 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 578,977 US residents.
Is Merrell a common name?
We classify Merrell as "Very Rare". It ranks above 86.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,319 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Merrell most popular?
The single biggest year for Merrell was 1927, when 36 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Merrell is about 63 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Merrell in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 740 people with the name Merrell, or 0.25 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #15,509 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 Merrell 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 Merrell?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Merrell on both sides of the split. Of the 745 people counted with this name, 548 were male (73.6%) and 197 were female (26.4%). 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 Merrell?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Merrell is White at 67.7%. The next largest groups are Black (24.3%) and Two or More Races (3.1%). 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 Merrell most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Merrell in the 2020 Census, accounting for 67.7% (501 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 Merrell in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Merrell a male name?
Yes, 88.2% of people registered as Merrell 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 Merrell still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Merrell 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 Merrell 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 Merrell?
Find out how many people share the name Merrell on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.