Merci
Feminine · “thanks”
Merci is given to both — 991 girls and 64 boys since 1880. See other names given to both
Merci is the French word for thank you, and its history is unexpected: it began as the Latin for wages, moved through the sense of a favor granted, and ended as both mercy and thanks.
How old is the name Merci?
Merci first appears in US birth records in 1963 — 62 years ago. The typical Merci is a kid of about 10 — this name's wave is very recent. About 1,000 people named Merci are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Merci most popular?
Merci peaked in 2019, reaching #2538 nationally. Today it ranks #3459, 921 places below that high. See the whole 2019 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From merces to Merci
The story of Merci
Merces was a plain commercial word in Latin — a wage, a price. Medieval French took it into the vocabulary of grace: a merci was a favor granted rather than earned, and to be at someone's mercy was to depend on that grace. English borrowed the sense of pity; French kept the sense of thanks. As a given name Merci is recent and American, and it belongs with Mercy, Grace and Charity.
Meaning
thanks; mercy
From Latin merces, wages or payment, through Old French merci; the word shifted from what is owed to what is granted freely, which is how it came to mean both mercy in English and thank you in French.
How the name formed
- merces
- merci
Related forms: Mercy · Mercedes · Mercede
Pronouncing Merci
MUR-see
Two syllables, first stressed, in American English. French says mair-SEE, with the stress at the end.
Nicknames for Merci
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1963
- Most girls named
- 201969 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2538reached in 2019
- Change vs 2024
- +37.5%44 in 2025, from 32
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Merci in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Mercy in English — related form
- Mercedes in Spanish — related form
- Mercede in Italian — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Georgia, California.
Mercis among us
people named Merci are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 36,529 born in 2025 was named Merci
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Merci
- #3459
- Merci on the 2025 chart
- #625
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Merci went to 44 girls in 2025, but Mercy is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 357, which makes it the 625th most-given girls’ name of the year — 2,834 places above the chart.
- Mercy313
- Merci44
About 1 girl in 4,502 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 36,529 for Merci itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Kammie test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Merci's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Kammie climbed just as high around 1965, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Kammie's path sketches the road Merci is walking now.
Merci sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Merci is headed
Merci is easing off slowly — about 18% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Merci beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Merci in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled meaning with a genuinely interesting shift of sense behind it.
- Five letters and two syllables, quick to write.
- It belongs to a recognized group of virtue names with real history.
- In French it is a courtesy word said dozens of times a day, which travelers will meet.
- Mercy is the English spelling and will be written for her.
- The English and French pronunciations differ in stress entirely.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Merci
Feminine · #3459 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Mercis are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,000 people named Merci are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Merci?
- Merci is one of 2 recorded spellings. Mercy is the more common one — 313 births in 2025 against 44 for Merci.
- How popular is the name Merci in 2025?
- Merci ranks #3459 among US girl names in 2025, with 44 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Merci?
- About 1 in every 36,529 US girls born in 2025 was named Merci — 44 in all.
- Will my child share the name Merci with classmates?
- Merci will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Merci
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Janey#3459 · Devon#3459 · Nitya#3459 · Zayah#3459 · Lively#3459 · Kynsley#3459 · Anaiya#3459 · Ena#3459
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Merci? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Merci and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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