Murrel
Masculine
Murrel is given to both — 736 boys and 189 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Murrel is recorded for boys and girls alike and has no documented parent. Its opening is shared with a word that was once one of the most frightening in the language and is now entirely dead outside footnotes.
How old is the name Murrel?
Murrel first appears in US birth records in 1898 — 127 years ago. The typical Murrel alive today was born around 1928, making them about 97 years old. About 100 people named Murrel are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Murrel most popular?
Murrel peaked in 1898, reaching #1121 nationally. See the whole 1898 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Murrel
A murrain was a disease of cattle and sheep, and for a farming population it meant ruin: the word appears in medieval records alongside famine and plague, and it is one of the plagues of Egypt in the older English Bibles. It became a curse. Characters in Shakespeare and his contemporaries say a murrain on you, meaning roughly may your animals die, which was a serious thing to wish on somebody. Then veterinary science arrived, the diseases got specific names, and the word emptied out. It is now unreadable to most English speakers, which is what happens to vocabulary when the thing it names stops being a routine catastrophe.
Meaningnot established
Not established
Murrell as a surname has Irish and English candidates and neither is settled. Whether an American Murrel comes from either, or was built from the sound, is not recorded.
Pronouncing Murrel
MUR-ul
Two syllables with the stress in front. muh-RELL is also heard and the spelling does not decide.
Nicknames for Murrel
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
- 1898
- Most boys named
- 192231 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1121reached in 1898
- Change vs 1966
- 0.0%5 in 1977, from 5
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.
Murrels among us
people named Murrel 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
Murrel 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
- It is read correctly at first sight and rarely needs spelling twice.
- It is recorded for boys and for girls, so it leaves a question open rather than closing it.
- It is short on paper and quick to write.
- Most children with this spelling are boys, but a real minority are girls; either may be taken for the other.
- Murrell and Merrill are both commoner, so the name will be heard as one of them.
- No origin is documented, so the meaning question has nothing settled to answer with.
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Murrel
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Murrels are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 100 people named Murrel are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Murrel in 2025?
- Murrel is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Murrel with classmates?
- Murrel 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 Murrel? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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