Merl
Merl is absent from the 2024 data, which means fewer than five births. Its best rank was 609th, in 1907.
- Rank in 2024
- —fewer than 5 births
- Births in 2024
- 0not in the data
- Peak year
- 192283 births
- Best rank
- #609in 1907
- Since 1886
- 2,852people given the name
The story in the numbers
2,574 boys have been named Merl in the United States since 1886, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 1922, with 83 births.
The name has all but left use: none recorded in 2024, against 83 at the peak.
Half of everyone given the name was born by 1929, and the 1920s alone account for 27%. It has spent 36 of 145 years in the top 1,000.
It is overwhelmingly a boy’s name: 278 girls have also been given it, 9.7% of the total.
Rank among boys, year by year
By decade
| Decade | boys named Merl | |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 15 | |
| 1890s | 58 | |
| 1900s | 69 | |
| 1910s | 503 | |
| 1920s | 693 | |
| 1930s | 411 | |
| 1940s | 331 | |
| 1950s | 265 | |
| 1960s | 145 | |
| 1970s | 69 | |
| 1980s | 15 |
In 1922, its biggest year
Merl was the 720th most given boy’s name that year. The top five boys’ names of 1922 were John, Robert, William, James and Charles. See all of 1922.
Names that rose and fell with Merl
Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.
- Loydpeak 1926
- Wilfredpeak 1920
- Clairpeak 1923
- Hubertpeak 1924
- Clovispeak 1917
- Olenpeak 1922
- Nortonpeak 1928
- Lloydpeak 1918
What this page does not tell you. The Social Security data records how many babies were given a name, not what the name means or where it comes from — so neither do we. Counts cover people with a Social Security number; names given to fewer than five babies in a year are withheld. More on the data.