Meryl
Feminine · “Irish muir and geal”
Meryl is given to both — 5,167 girls and 432 boys since 1880. See other names given to both
Muriel is sea-bright. Irish and Breton muir, the sea, joins geal, bright or shining, and the compound Muirgel traveled from Ireland to Brittany and back into English through Norman French. Meryl is a modern respelling of it, and the sea element is one of the oldest in Celtic naming.
How old is the name Meryl?
Meryl first appears in US birth records in 1892 — 133 years ago. The typical Meryl alive today was born around 1958, making them about 67 years old. About 3,800 people named Meryl are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Meryl most popular?
Meryl peaked in 1952, reaching #747 nationally. Today it ranks #8362, 7,615 places below that high. See the whole 1952 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Muirgel to Meryl
The story of Meryl
Muir, the sea, is a productive element across the Celtic languages and it appears in a striking number of names: Muirgel, Muirenn, Muirchertach, Murdoch and the surname Muir. It is the same word as Latin mare, French mer and German Meer, all descending from the same Indo-European root, which is why the Celtic names look faintly familiar to speakers of other European languages. Ireland's naming stock is unusually full of it, which is unsurprising for an island. Muirgel traveled to Brittany with Irish monks and settlers, was carried into England by the Normans, and became Muriel, one of the more common women's names of medieval England before falling out of use and returning in the nineteenth century. The 1952 American peak for Meryl precedes the actress who made the spelling famous by more than twenty years.
Meaningscholars disagree
Irish muir and geal, sea and bright
Muriel is generally derived from the Irish Muirgel, from muir, the sea, and geal, bright or white, by way of Breton and Norman French. Meryl is a twentieth-century respelling. An alternative treats Meryl as an independent formation on Meredith or on the English word merry, and the two paths cannot be separated in the American record. It peaks in 1952.
How the name formed
- Muirgel
- Muriel
- Meryl
Related forms: Muriel · Muirgheal · Merrill
Pronouncing Meryl
MER-ul
Two syllables, stress on the first. The second syllable is fully reduced. Meryl, Merrill and Meryll are all said the same way, and Muriel has three syllables, MYOOR-ee-ul.
Nicknames for Meryl
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
- 1892
- Most girls named
- 1952141 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #747reached in 1952
- Change vs 2022
- −25.0%12 in 2025, from 16
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.
Meryl in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Muriel in English — related form
- Muirgheal in Irish — related form
- Merrill in English — spelling variant
Meryls among us
people named Meryl are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 133,939 born in 2025 was named Meryl
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Meryl
- #8362
- Meryl on the 2025 chart
- #940
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Meryl went to 12 girls in 2025, but Merrill is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 20, which makes it the 940th most-given girls’ name of the year — 7,422 places above the chart.
- Meryl12
- Merrill8
About 1 girl in 80,363 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 133,939 for Meryl 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 Naoma test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Meryl's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Naoma climbed just as high around 1924, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Naoma's path sketches the road Meryl is walking now.
Meryl 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
Meryl beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Meryl in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The Celtic elements behind Muriel are settled and vivid.
- The spelling is short and reads cleanly.
- It is distinctive without being unfamiliar.
- One very famous bearer dominates the association.
- Merrill is a homophone and is chiefly a surname.
- The link to Muriel is not obvious from the spelling.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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Meryl
Feminine · #8362 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Meryls are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,800 people named Meryl are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Meryl?
- Meryl is the most-used spelling in US records — 12 of the 20 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Merrill.
- How popular is the name Meryl in 2025?
- Meryl ranks #8362 among US girl names in 2025, with 12 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Meryl?
- About 1 in every 133,939 US girls born in 2025 was named Meryl — 12 in all.
- Will my child share the name Meryl with classmates?
- Meryl will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Meryl
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Lona#8362 · Peggy#8362 · Leda#8362 · Margarette#8362 · Rella#8362 · Evalena#8362 · Vashti#8362 · Nona#8362
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Meryl? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Meryl and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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