Muriel
Feminine
Muriel is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 54,884 girls against 762 boys since 1880. See Muriel as a boy name
Muriel is an old name from the Celtic west, recorded here for boys as well as girls. Its best-known modern bearer wrote a short novel very quickly and then spent the rest of a long career being asked about that one book.
How old is the name Muriel?
Muriel was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Muriel alive today was born around 1924, making them about 101 years old. About 11,000 people named Muriel are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Muriel most popular?
Muriel peaked in 1922, reaching #112 nationally. Today it ranks #4352, 4,240 places below that high. See the whole 1922 chart.
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Muriel
Muriel Spark wrote twenty-two novels, and the one everybody knows is the short one about an Edinburgh schoolmistress who grooms a set of favored pupils into her own image and comes to a bad end. She wrote it fast, it was published in a magazine entire, and it turned into a play, a film and a television series within a decade. She was unsentimental about all of it. Her other books are stranger and in several cases better, and she went on producing them into her eighties from a village in Tuscany, writing in longhand in notebooks bought from one particular stationer in Edinburgh, which she had sent out to her.
Meaningnot established
Not established
The name is generally traced to an Irish or Breton compound and the elements are reasonably clear, but the route into English use is tangled and the record holds this spelling for both sexes without explaining either fact.
Pronouncing Muriel
MYOOR-ee-ul
Three syllables with the stress in front. Some speakers reduce it to two, and both are current.
Nicknames for Muriel
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 girls named
- 19212,248 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #112reached in 1922
- Change vs 2022
- +45.5%32 in 2025, from 22
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.
Muriel in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Muirgheal in Irish — related form
- Muriel in French — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California.
Muriels among us
people named Muriel are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 50,227 born in 2025 was named Muriel
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 Mable test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Muriel's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Mable climbed just as high around 1905, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Mable's path sketches the road Muriel is walking now.
Muriel 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 Muriel is headed
Muriel looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 47% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
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.
Muriel beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Muriel in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It has a documented history in English going back many centuries.
- It is read correctly at first sight by nearly everybody.
- It is recorded for boys and for girls, so it leaves a question open rather than closing it.
- In America it reads as belonging to a much older generation, which is either the appeal or the obstacle.
- This spelling goes overwhelmingly to girls but is recorded for boys as well, so a form will occasionally guess wrong.
- The novel association is strong for readers, and the character in it is not a good person.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Muriel
Feminine · #4352 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Muriels are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 11,000 people named Muriel are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Muriel in 2025?
- Muriel ranks #4352 among US girl names in 2025, with 32 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Muriel?
- About 1 in every 50,227 US girls born in 2025 was named Muriel — 32 in all.
- Will my child share the name Muriel with classmates?
- Muriel will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Muriel
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Sigrid#4352 · Adel#4352 · Lovella#4352 · Kaysha#4352 · Arissa#4352 · Joseline#4352 · Yajaira#4352 · Elma#4352
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Muriel? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Muriel and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
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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