Mercer

Mercer is the 1,051st most common surname in the United States, shared by 32,906 people at the 2020 census. That is about one person in 9,083.

By the numbers

People: 32,906
Rank: 1,051st
How common: 1 in 9,083
Per 100,000: 11.0

Where the name comes from

English and Catalan surname, variant of Mercier.

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

Who bears the name

How people with the surname Mercer described their own race and Hispanic origin at the 2020 census:

White, not Hispanic 79.4%
Black, not Hispanic 12.4%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 3.9%
Hispanic or Latino 3.2%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 0.6%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 0.5%

Notable people called Mercer

Johnny Mercer (1909–1976)American lyricist, songwriter, singer and record executive
Matthew Mercer (born 1982)American actor
Joe Mercer (1914–1990)English footballer and manager
Ray Mercer (born 1961)American Boxer
Robert Mercer (born 1946)American computer scientist and businessman
Tommy Mercer (born 1985)American professional wrestler, promoter
Jack Mercer (1910–1984)American voice actor
Beryl Mercer (1882–1939)actress

People named Mercer with articles in the most Wikipedia languages. Data from Wikidata (CC0).

Surnames like Mercer

Also a first name

Mercer has been given to 1,558 American babies as a first name since 1881, peaking in 2025. See it as a given name.

Try it on yourself

Source: US Census Bureau, Frequently Occurring Surnames, 2020. The Census describes the file as the surnames borne by 100 or more people; rarer names are not published. The line is not quite exact, and 617 published names come in under it, the smallest at 92 people. Race and Hispanic origin are self-reported. Rates are worked out against the 298.9 million people the file's own figures are calculated on, which is fewer than the census counted in all: the difference is everyone whose surname was too rare to publish.