Merline
Feminine
Merline sits between two names and belongs to neither cleanly. Merle is a French word for a blackbird; Merlin is a wizard and also, quite separately, a small falcon. The two birds are the interesting part: English has two Merlin words, and only one of them has anything to do with Arthur.
How old is the name Merline?
Merline first appears in US birth records in 1910 — 115 years ago. The typical Merline alive today was born around 1937, making them about 88 years old. About 500 people named Merline are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Merline most popular?
Merline peaked in 1931, reaching #1199 nationally. See the whole 1931 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Old French esmerillon gives English the falcon merlin to Merline
The story of Merline
The bird came first in English. A merlin is a small, fast falcon, the smallest in Europe, and the word arrived from Old French as esmerillon and wore down to its present shape long before Arthurian romance was fashionable in England. The wizard's name is entirely separate: it is a Latinization of a Welsh name, altered by the man who Latinized it because the obvious form would have looked like an unfortunate French word. So English ended up with two Merlins, one on a wrist in a hawking party and one in a cave, and no relation between them beyond the accident of sound.
Meaningnot established
Not established
The front may be Merle, from the French for a blackbird and used as a name for both sexes in America, or Merlin, or the same Mer element that turns up in Meredith and Merrill. The ending was attaching itself to almost anything in the decades this name appears. What the record shows is a name in use in the American South from the 1910s with no dictionary entry, no saint and no story attached to it — only a set of near relatives that it could plausibly have come from.
How the name formed
- Old French esmerillon gives English the falcon merlin
- a Welsh name is separately Latinized into the wizard's
- Merle used in America for daughters and sons
- Merline appears in the record in the 1910s
- peaks in the 1930s and fades
Related forms: Merle · Merlene · Marlene
Pronouncing Merline
mur-LEEN
Two syllables with the stress at the back, on the pattern of Charlene and Darlene. MER-line, rhyming with the word, is also heard and cannot be called wrong.
Nicknames for Merline
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
- 1910
- Most girls named
- 192437 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1199reached in 1931
- Change vs 2003
- +60.0%8 in 2007, from 5
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.
Merline in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Merle in French — related form
- Merlene in English — spelling variant
- Marlene in English — related form
Merlines among us
people named Merline are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Merline sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- It is soft and unhurried and belongs to a real period of American naming.
- Merle and Lena are both available and both are usable names on their own.
- The bird behind the nearest relative is a good one to be associated with.
- There is no settled origin and no meaning to give her.
- The stress is genuinely unsettled between two readings.
- Marlene and Merlene are both commoner and will be substituted.
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Merline
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Merlines are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Merline are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Merline in 2025?
- Merline is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Merline with classmates?
- Merline will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More M names
The most-given names starting with M, all years combined.
Mary#125 · Margaret#112 · Michelle#465 · Melissa#419 · Maria#87 · Martha#712 · Marie#617 · Mildred#1962
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Merline? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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