Merton
From an Old English name referring to a meritorious man or town.
Name Census estimates that about 831 living Americans carry the first name Merton. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Merton today is around 76 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Merton births was 1920 (150 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Merton. 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 Merton is about 76 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Mertons were born before 1960.
People living today
831
~ 1 in 412,460 Americans
Peak year
1920
150 babies that year
Average age
76
years old
1995 SSA rank
#9,813
Tracked since 1880
Census
Merton in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,059 people with the first name Merton, which placed it at #11,928 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
#11,928
National first-name rank
People counted
1.1K
1,059 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
84.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Merton
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Merton is White at 84.0%. The next largest groups are Black (9.4%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (2.2%). 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 Merton 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 Merton at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White84.0% · 890
- Black or African American9.4% · 100
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.2% · 23
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.9% · 20
- Two or more races1.3% · 14
- Hispanic or Latino1.1% · 12
Popularity
Merton: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Merton from the 1880s through to the 1990s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 1,311 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
Merton 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 Merton during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Mertons live
The SSA's state-level files cover 19 states and territories. New York, Maine, Minnesota recorded the most babies named Merton, while Montana, Connecticut, Ohio recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 98 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Merton
Merton is an English given name derived from the Old English words "mere" meaning "lake" and "tun" meaning "enclosure" or "settlement". It emerged as a place name in England during the Anglo-Saxon period, referring to a settlement near a lake.
The name Merton gained popularity as a personal name in medieval times, likely influenced by the establishment of Merton Priory, a prominent monastery founded in Surrey, England in the 12th century. This religious institution played a significant role in the spread and recognition of the name.
One of the earliest recorded instances of Merton as a given name dates back to the 13th century. Merton College, founded in 1264 at the University of Oxford, was named after Walter de Merton, a renowned scholar and ecclesiastic who served as the Lord Chancellor of England in the late 13th century.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Merton. Thomas Merton (1915-1968) was a renowned American Trappist monk, writer, theologian, and social activist known for his influential works on spirituality and social justice. His autobiography, "The Seven Storey Mountain," is considered a modern spiritual classic.
Merton Miller (1923-2000) was an American economist who received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1990 for his pioneering work in the theory of finance and the field of corporate finance. His contributions, including the Modigliani-Miller theorem, have had a lasting impact on financial economics.
Merton Hanks (born 1971) is a former American football safety who played in the National Football League (NFL) for the San Francisco 49ers and Seattle Seahawks. He was a five-time Pro Bowl selection and won two Super Bowl championships with the 49ers.
Merton Hodge (1894-1978) was a British artist and illustrator known for his work in children's literature. He is particularly renowned for his illustrations in the beloved "Little Grey Rabbit" book series by Alison Uttley.
Merton Priory, founded in 1117, was a prominent Augustinian monastery in Surrey, England, and played a significant role in the dissemination of the name Merton in medieval times. The priory's influence extended far beyond its physical location, contributing to the recognition and popularity of the name.
People
Merton + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Merton 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
Merton: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Merton?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 831 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Merton 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 412,460 US residents.
Is Merton a common name?
We classify Merton as "Very Rare". It ranks above 88.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,247 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Merton most popular?
The single biggest year for Merton was 1920, when 150 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Merton is about 76 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Merton in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,059 people with the name Merton, or 0.35 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #11,928 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 Merton 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 Merton?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Merton appears almost entirely male. Of the 1,054 people counted with this name, 99.4% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Merton?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Merton is White at 84.0%. The next largest groups are Black (9.4%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (2.2%). 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 Merton most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Merton in the 2020 Census, accounting for 84.0% (890 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 Merton in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Merton a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Merton 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 Merton still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Merton 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 Merton 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 Americans are named Merton?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many Americans are named Merton at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.