Morrell
Masculine · “dark-complexioned”
Morrell is an English and French surname with two possible sources that have nothing to do with each other, and a doubled letter that belongs to neither. One of them is a mushroom that has defeated commercial agriculture for a century and a half.
How old is the name Morrell?
Morrell first appears in US birth records in 1914 — 111 years ago. The typical Morrell alive today was born around 1949, making them about 76 years old. About 400 people named Morrell are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Morrell most popular?
Morrell peaked in 1941, reaching #1821 nationally. See the whole 1941 chart.
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Morrell
Morels are among the most valuable wild mushrooms in the world and nobody can farm them properly. They have been grown under controlled conditions occasionally and unpredictably since the eighteen-eighties, and several commercial ventures have collapsed when a crop that worked one year simply failed the next. What they do reliably is fruit after fire: the spring following a forest burn produces enormous flushes on ground that had none before, and commercial pickers follow the previous summer's burn maps across the western United States and Canada. Why is not fully understood — the loss of competing organisms, a chemical trigger, or the death of the host tree provoking the fungus to fruit before its partner is gone. The mushrooms must be cooked; eaten raw they make people ill.
Meaningscholars disagree
dark-complexioned
The likelier source is a medieval nickname from the French word for dark or swarthy, of the same family as Morris and Maurice. The alternative derives it from the mushroom, which is a separate word from Germanic. Both produce surnames of this shape and the record cannot separate them.
Pronouncing Morrell
muh-RELL
Two syllables with the stress at the back. The doubled l is an English spelling habit after a stressed short vowel and changes nothing about the sound.
Nicknames for Morrell
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
- 1914
- Most boys named
- 191917 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1821reached in 1941
- Change vs 2014
- −28.6%5 in 2017, from 7
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.
Morrells among us
people named Morrell 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
Morrell 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
- Back stress gives a two-syllable name a firm landing.
- It is genuinely rare while being entirely readable at first sight.
- Both short forms are easy and sound unrelated to each other.
- Morell, Murrell and Morrow will all be written for it.
- It reads as a surname, which suits some settings and not others.
- The two possible origins are unrelated, so the meaning has to be given with a qualification.
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Morrell
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Morrells are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 400 people named Morrell are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Morrell in 2025?
- Morrell is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Morrell with classmates?
- Morrell will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More M names
The most-given names starting with M, all years combined.
Michael#21 · Matthew#32 · Mark#244 · Mason#39 · Martin#335 · Marvin#699 · Melvin#958 · Marcus#258
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Morrell? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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