Merritt

Merritt is the 772nd most common surname in the United States, shared by 43,857 people at the 2020 census. That is about one person in 6,815.

By the numbers

People: 43,857
Rank: 772nd
How common: 1 in 6,815
Per 100,000: 14.7

Who bears the name

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

White, not Hispanic 72.4%
Black, not Hispanic 18.9%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 4.3%
Hispanic or Latino 3.1%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 0.7%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 0.6%

Notable people called Merritt

LaShawn Merritt (born 1986)American track and field athlete
Aries Merritt (born 1985)American hurdler
Abraham Grace Merritt (1884–1943)American author
Anna Lea Merritt (1844–1930)American painter
Wesley Merritt (1836–1910)Union Army general

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

Surnames like Merritt

Also a first name

Merritt has been given to 9,382 American babies as a first name since 1880, peaking in 1924. 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.