Merl vs Mervin
American parents have registered 12,360 Mervins since 1880, against 2,852 Merls. Mervin is still ahead, with 58 babies in 2025.
Babies given each name, 1880–2025
Merl Mervin
Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.
Who was ahead
Of the 145 years in which either name was published, Mervin for 140 years and Merl for 5 years. The lead changed hands 10 times.
Side by side
| Merl | Mervin | |
|---|---|---|
| Total US births | 2,852 | 12,360 |
| Most in one year | 92 | 257 |
| Babies in 2025 | under 5 | 58 |
| Estimated living today | 610 | 5,400 |
| Median age today | 72 | 51 |
| Peak year | 1922 | 1920 |
| Best rank | 717th boys | 377th boys |
| Rank in 2025 | unranked | 2,363rd |
| First recorded | 1886 | 1880 |
| Girls / boys | 278 / 2,574 | 38 / 12,322 |
A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.
Which name is older
Half of the Merls alive today are over 72; half the Mervins are over 51. That is 21 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.
Where each one is strongest
- Merl Oklahoma (7.1×), Indiana (6.8×), Iowa (6.4×)
- Mervin Pennsylvania (4.9×), Iowa (4.8×), Louisiana (4.0×)
How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.
Compare something else
Related comparisons
Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Merl and Mervin.