Merrell
Masculine · “Bright sea”
Merrell is given to both — 1,164 boys and 155 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Merrell doubles both its consonants and the name underneath has neither doubled. Muriel, a Celtic woman's name, produced this surname directly, which is rare: most English surnames come from a father's name, a trade or a place, and very few from a mother's.
How old is the name Merrell?
Merrell first appears in US birth records in 1911 — 114 years ago. The typical Merrell alive today was born around 1943, making them about 82 years old. About 500 people named Merrell are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Merrell most popular?
Merrell peaked in 1915, reaching #1265 nationally. See the whole 1915 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Muirgel to Merrell
The story of Merrell
Muriel was an ordinary English woman's name from the twelfth century to the fifteenth and then stopped being one for four hundred years, coming back briefly in the nineteenth century on the strength of a few novels and going out again. Its afterlife is in the surnames: Merrill, Merrell, Murrell and Murrill all descend from it, carried by families identified through a woman rather than a man, which the record does much more rarely than it might. Where it happens, it usually means the mother was the more notable parent, or that the father was absent or unknown. A whole set of American men now carry a Breton woman's name without knowing it.
Meaning
Bright sea
The Celtic name behind it joins a word for the sea to one meaning bright or shining. It came to England through Brittany with the Normans, was common for three centuries, and produced this surname and several others before falling out of use as a given name entirely.
How the name formed
- Muirgel
- Muriel
- Merrell
Related forms: Muirgheal · Meriel
Pronouncing Merrell
MER-ul
Two syllables with the stress at the front. Some families say muh-REL with the weight at the back, which is the older pattern for this surname; both are current.
Nicknames for Merrell
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
- 1911
- Most boys named
- 194327 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1265reached in 1915
- Change vs 2010
- +20.0%6 in 2015, 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.
Merrell in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Muirgheal in Irish — related form
- Meriel in Breton — related form
Merrells among us
people named Merrell 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
Merrell 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
- Short, firm and easy to say once the stress is settled.
- It works for a child of either sex, which the record confirms.
- The name underneath it has a clear and attractive meaning.
- The record carries it for girls as well as boys, so it signals nothing on a form.
- Merrill is the commoner spelling and will be written instead.
- It reads as a surname and, for many Americans, as a make of boot.
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Merrell
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Merrells 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 Merrell are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Merrell in 2025?
- Merrell is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Merrell with classmates?
- Merrell will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More M names
The most-given names starting with M, all years combined.
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Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Merrell? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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