Merna
Feminine · “beloved”
Muirne was the mother of Fionn mac Cumhaill, the hero of the largest cycle of stories in Irish. Her name went into English as Myrna, and Merna is that with the y written as an e — two removes from an Irish woman who had to hide her son in a forest to keep him alive.
How old is the name Merna?
Merna first appears in US birth records in 1895 — 130 years ago. The typical Merna alive today was born around 1934, making them about 91 years old. About 900 people named Merna are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Merna most popular?
Merna peaked in 1930, reaching #795 nationally. See the whole 1930 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Muirne to Merna
The story of Merna
In the stories, Muirne's father refuses her marriage, her husband is killed in the battle that follows, and she gives her infant son to two women to raise in secret in the woods — where he grows up to be Fionn. The Fenian cycle runs to thousands of pages across a thousand years, and she is at the start of it. The name reached English in the nineteenth-century revival of Irish material, was spelled Myrna, and then American families wrote what they heard, which gave Merna, Mirna and Murna in the same decades.
Meaningscholars disagree
beloved, high-spirited
The Irish Muirne is generally read as beloved or as spirited, and the two proposals have both been current for a century. Neither respelling touches the question.
How the name formed
- Muirne
- Myrna
- Merna
Related forms: Muirne
Pronouncing Merna
MUR-nuh
Two syllables with the weight at the front. The Irish original is said MOOR-nyuh, which no English spelling of it suggests.
Nicknames for Merna
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
- 1895
- Most girls named
- 193079 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #795reached in 1930
- Change vs 2022
- −33.3%8 in 2024, from 12
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.
Merna in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Muirne in Irish — related form
Mernas among us
people named Merna 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
Merna 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 said correctly at sight by anyone who has met the commoner spelling.
- Five letters, two syllables, and nothing complicated in it.
- The story behind the Irish name is one of the largest in European folklore.
- Myrna is the commoner spelling and will be written instead.
- The Irish original is unrecognizable from any English version.
- It reads clearly as a name of the first half of the twentieth century.
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Merna
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Mernas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 900 people named Merna are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Merna in 2025?
- Merna is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Merna with classmates?
- Merna 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 Merna? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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