Merrill
Masculine · “bright sea”
Merrill is given to both — 12,988 boys and 2,077 girls since 1880. See Merrill as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Merrill is a man's name that descends from a woman's. The medieval English given name Muriel became the surname Merrill and Murrell, and the surname then came back round as a first name for boys — so a name given mostly to men today began as a name given only to women.
How old is the name Merrill?
Merrill was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Merrill alive today was born around 1933, making them about 92 years old. About 4,200 people named Merrill are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Merrill most popular?
Merrill peaked in 1916, reaching #320 nationally. Today it ranks #6143, 5,823 places below that high. See the whole 1916 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Muirgheal to Merrill
The story of Merrill
Muriel came into England from Ireland and Brittany and was ordinary enough in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries to generate surnames, which is how the record works — a given name becomes a family name only when enough people carry it. Those surnames outlived the given name by several centuries. Then America, which turns surnames into first names as a matter of routine, brought it back the other way, and Merrill entered the records as a boy's name in the nineteenth century. It has never fully committed: it leans to boys and has always taken a real share of girls, which makes sense for a name that was a woman's to begin with.
Meaning
bright sea
Through the surname Merrill from the medieval woman's name Muriel, which is Irish and Scottish Gaelic Muirgheal: muir, the sea, with geal, bright or shining. The same muir stands behind Murray and the surname Muir. The name describes water, not a person.
How the name formed
- Muirgheal
- Muriel
- Merrill
Related forms: Muirgheal · Muireall
Pronouncing Merrill
MERR-ul
Two syllables, stress on the first, exactly like the surname. muh-RIL, with the weight at the end, is used by some families and follows the French pattern rather than the English one.
Nicknames for Merrill
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
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 1918296 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #320reached in 1916
- Change vs 2022
- +75.0%14 in 2025, from 8
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.
Merrill in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Muirgheal in Irish — related form
- Muireall in Scottish Gaelic — related form
Merrills among us
people named Merrill are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 122,005 born in 2025 was named Merrill
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Houston test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Merrill's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Houston climbed just as high around 1901, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Houston's path sketches the road Merrill is walking now.
Merrill 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
Merrill beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Merrill in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A documented Gaelic meaning with both elements traceable to living words.
- It genuinely serves either child, and the record shows it doing so.
- Two syllables and a spelling most people read correctly on sight.
- It leans to boys without settling, so a form will guess and will be wrong often enough to matter.
- Meryl, Merril and Merrell are all in use and all sound identical.
- It is strongly represented among the oldest generations and carries their period clearly.
- It is also a well-known financial firm's name, which is what a search will return.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Merrill
Masculine · #6143 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Merrills are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 4,200 people named Merrill are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Merrill in 2025?
- Merrill ranks #6143 among US boy names in 2025, with 14 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Merrill?
- About 1 in every 122,005 US boys born in 2025 was named Merrill — 14 in all.
- Will my child share the name Merrill with classmates?
- Merrill will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Merrill
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ruel#6143 · Cornell#6143 · Vasco#6143 · Kemper#6143 · Yates#6143 · Roark#6143 · Raja#6143 · Orville#6143
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Merrill? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Merrill and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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