Merrick
Masculine · “dark-skinned”
Merrick is given to both — 5,792 boys and 519 girls since 1880. See Merrick as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Merrick reaches English through Wales: it began as a surname built on Meurig, the Welsh form of the old Latin name Mauricius, and traveled as Meyrick and Merrick before anyone thought to hand it to a baby as a first name. It has been on American birth records for well over a century — never crowded, never absent — and it lands in the mouth the way Patrick and Frederick do, two beats with a firm finish.
How old is the name Merrick?
Merrick first appears in US birth records in 1905 — 120 years ago. The typical Merrick alive today was born around 2012, making them about 13 years old. About 5,400 people named Merrick are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Merrick most popular?
Merrick peaked in 2018, reaching #818 nationally. Today it ranks #1183, 365 places below that high. See the whole 2018 chart.
Merrick appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From Mauricius to Merrick
The story of Merrick
The Welsh name Meurig was in use long before English record-keeping regularised spelling, and when Welsh families anglicized it, it emerged as Meyrick, Merrick and Meredith-adjacent spellings across the border counties. From there it did what English surnames do: it crossed the Atlantic, attached itself to places and streets, and eventually stepped forward as a first name — a common route for Welsh surnames in American naming. Its Latin ancestor Mauricius also produced Maurice, Maurizio and Mauricio, so Merrick has cousins in most of Europe even where the spelling looks purely British.
Meaningscholars disagree
'dark-skinned, Moorish' via Welsh Meurig, from Latin Mauricius
The main line runs through the Welsh name Meurig, a form of Latin Mauricius, from Maurus — 'a Moor', hence 'dark'. A separate root is argued for the Scottish hill called The Merrick and the surnames drawn from it, from Gaelic meurach, describing something branched or finger-like. Both are serious; which one a given family's Merrick descends from usually cannot be told.
How the name formed
- Mauricius
- Meurig
- Meyrick
- Merrick
Related forms: Meurig · Meyrick · Maurice · Maurizio · Mauricio · Mauricius
Pronouncing Merrick
MERR-ik
Stress on the first syllable, second syllable light — the same pattern as Derrick and Eric. The Welsh ancestor Meurig sounds quite different (roughly MOY-rig), so don't expect the two to rhyme.
Nicknames for Merrick
High
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
- 1905
- Most boys named
- 2018274 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #818reached in 2018
- Change vs 2023
- −17.1%174 in 2025, from 210
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.
Merrick in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Meurig in Welsh — related form
- Meyrick in Welsh/English — spelling variant
- Maurice in French — related form
- Maurizio in Italian — related form
- Mauricio in Spanish — related form
- Mauricius in Latin — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Merricks among us
people named Merrick are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 9,817 born in 2025 was named Merrick
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Merrick
- #1183
- Merrick on the 2025 chart
- #732
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Merrick went to 174 boys in 2025, but Merick, Merrik and Meric and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 5 spellings went to 197, which makes it the 732nd most-given boys’ name of the year — 451 places above the chart.
- Merrick174
- Merick7
- Merrik6
- Meric5
- Merik5
About 1 boy in 8,670 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 9,817 for Merrick 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 Rahul test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Merrick's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Rahul climbed just as high around 2000, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Rahul's path sketches the road Merrick is walking now.
Merrick 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 Merrick is headed
Merrick should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
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.
Merrick beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Merrick in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A spelling most Americans already recognize from surnames and place names, so it rarely needs to be invented from scratch on the page.
- A documented line back through Welsh Meurig to Latin Mauricius — an unbroken record far older than its life as a first name.
- Cousins in French, Italian and Spanish through Maurice, Maurizio and Mauricio, which travel well outside English.
- Two syllables with front stress, easy to call across a yard and easy for a young child to say.
- Ready-made short forms in Rick and Ricky if a nickname is ever wanted, without requiring one.
- Derrick, Merrick and Merritt sit close enough that mishearing is likely on the phone and in classrooms — expect a fair amount of gentle correcting, though the spelling itself is phonetic once heard.
- It still reads as a surname to many ears, so it may draw the occasional 'is that his last name?' — less so than it did a generation ago, as surname-first-names have become ordinary.
- Joseph Merrick, the Victorian Englishman exhibited as the Elephant Man, carried it as a surname; some adults will make that connection, and it is a fainter association each year.
- Well-known but never abundant: a child called Merrick will likely be the only one in a school, which some families want and others find isolating.
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What they receive
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Merrick
Masculine · #1183 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Merricks are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 5,400 people named Merrick are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Merrick?
- Merrick is the most-used spelling in US records — 174 of the 197 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Merick, Merrik, Meric and Merik.
- How popular is the name Merrick in 2025?
- Merrick ranks #1183 among US boy names in 2025, with 174 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Merrick?
- About 1 in every 9,817 US boys born in 2025 was named Merrick — 174 in all.
- Will my child share the name Merrick with classmates?
- Merrick will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Merrick
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Oren#1183 · Steele#1183 · Gadiel#1186 · Sekani#1186 · Bishop#1188 · Jabari#1188 · Kristopher#1188 · Ash#1176
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Merrick? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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