Humanverse

Merrell

About 1,319 American babies have been named Merrell since 1911, most of them around 1915. It has not appeared in the national data since 2015. About 550 Merrells are alive in the United States today, and half of them are over 65.

Popularity, 1880–2025

Births per year, 1880 to 2025 0 8 16 24 32 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

girls named Merrell boys named Merrell

Girls and boys called Merrell

Share of the name given to girls, 1880 to 2025 0% 25% 50% 75% 100% 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

years more girls than boys years more boys than girls

Both, throughout, without either side ever taking it over: 155 girls and 1,164 boys in all, and in 1950 the split was 5 to 21.

The girls’ share of each year’s babies of the name, in the 12 years in which at least 25 babies got it. The line touches the middle more often than there are crossings marked: a year or two on the other side is not a name changing hands, and only a move that holds for 5 counted years and reaches 60/40 is recorded as one. All 581 names that changed sex.

By the numbers

Total US births
1,319
Estimated living today
550
Median age today
65
Peak year
1915
Best rank
1,265th
Rank in 2025
unranked
First recorded
1911
Girls / boys
155 / 1,164

How old the living Merrells are

Born with the name each year, and how many of them are alive today, 1880 to 2025 0 10 20 30 40 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

born that year still alive today

Of the 1,319 babies given the name since 1911, about 550 are alive — 42 in every hundred. The dotted line is the median: half were born before 1960 and half after.

An estimate, not a count. SSA births aged forward through SSA cohort life tables, which know nothing about who left the country or arrived in it — so for a name that mostly came to America rather than being born in it, this is a floor rather than a figure. Where you fall among living Americans.

Where the name comes from

Variant of Muriel.

Etymology from Wiktionary, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Where Merrell is most common

Total births recorded in each state since 1910. Browse names by state.

Names of 1915

The most popular boys’ names the year Merrell peaked:

All the names of 1915

Related names

Merrell against another name

Two names on one chart, with the year one overtook the other.

Compare Merrell with a name of your own

Try it on yourself

Source: US Social Security Administration, national and state baby-name files, 1880–2025. Counts include only births registered with the SSA, and names with fewer than five births in a year are not published. The living estimate applies SSA cohort life tables to those births; it counts people born in the United States, so it misses anyone who arrived later and anyone who has left.