How Many People Are Named Merl?
people named Merl are alive in the United States today (estimate)
About 1 in 560,303 people in the US has this name
Based on 2,852 babies named Merl in Social Security records from 1886 to 1986, and the share of each birth year still alive in 2025.
Popularity Rank
💎💎 Very Rare
Peak Year
92 births
Trend
Last year given
⚧ Gender Distribution
Of the babies given the name Merl, 4.9% were girls and 95.1% were boys. The share has stayed close to this since the 1910s: 13% of the babies were girls then and 3.3% in the 1960s.
👥 Age Distribution
The average person named Merl alive today is about 71 years old, and 81% are 60 or older. Half of them were between 62 and 80 in 2025.
📈 Popularity Over Time
Merl first appears in the records in 1886 and was given most often in 1922, to 92 babies. The last year it was given to at least 5 babies of one sex was 1986.
Babies given the name each year, 1886 to 1986
🏆 Rank History
Merl has never been one of the 100 most popular boys' names. Its best rank was #609, in 1907.
| Boys | |
|---|---|
| Rank in 2025 | Not ranked |
| Best rank | #609 (1907) |
| Years in the top 100 | None |
| Rank in its biggest decade | #800 in the 1920s |
📍 State-Wise Distribution
People named Merl alive today, by the state where they were born (estimate; state records start in 1910).
More people named Merl were born in Oklahoma than in any other state: about 10 of those alive today. Compared with the national rate in the same years, Merl was given 6.6 times as often in Indiana, 4.8 times in Oklahoma and 4.2 times in Iowa.
Look up another name
⊙ We don't save the names you search.