Meril
Meril was last recorded in 1960, when 5 babies were given it; 150 Americans have been recorded with it between 1912 and 1960 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Meril by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Meril?
Unranked in 2025
Its last boys’ rank on record is #4,413, in 1960; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
13 babies in 1924, the peak
Meril peaked in 1924, when 13 babies were given it (8 boys, #3,412 among boys’ names). It was not recorded in 2025.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1960 | under 5 | 5 | #4,413 | |
| 1954 | under 5 | 5 | #4,176 | |
| 1953 | 5 | #6,249 | under 5 | |
| 1951 | 5 | #5,956 | under 5 | |
| 1948 | under 5 | 5 | #4,012 | |
| 1947 | under 5 | 6 | #3,619 | |
| 1943 | 5 | #5,134 | 6 | #3,439 |
| 1942 | under 5 | 9 | #2,648 | |
| 1937 | under 5 | 6 | #3,397 | |
| 1934 | under 5 | 5 | #4,029 |
Every recorded year (22)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1933 | under 5 | 8 | #2,911 | |
| 1932 | under 5 | 10 | #2,574 | |
| 1928 | under 5 | 5 | #4,533 | |
| 1924 | 5 | #5,624 | 8 | #3,412 |
| 1923 | under 5 | 5 | #4,662 | |
| 1922 | under 5 | 10 | #2,934 | |
| 1921 | under 5 | 6 | #4,175 | |
| 1920 | under 5 | 6 | #4,115 | |
| 1917 | under 5 | 6 | #3,830 | |
| 1916 | under 5 | 7 | #3,393 | |
| 1915 | under 5 | 7 | #3,276 | |
| 1912 | under 5 | 5 | #2,785 |
Ranks: girls’ names and boys’ names ranked separately in each year’s SSA file; “under 5” is a year SSA did not list the name for that sex.
Is Meril a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 150 Americans recorded as Meril, 13% are girls and 87% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Meril: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Meril, and how old are they?
An estimated 31 Americans named Meril and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026, too few to state an age range. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 233 people named Meril (141 women and girls, 92 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 43 born in the U.S. The Census count is 5.4 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
How common is the spelling Meril?
Meril is a less common spelling of Merrill: SSA has recorded 150 Meril and 15,065 Merrill since 1880.
Of these 7 names spelled alike, given to 21,206 babies since 1880, Meril is the seventh most given (<1% of them). In 2025 none of their 22 babies recorded by SSA was a Meril (SSA lists a name only with 5 or more babies of one sex).
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Meril
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Meril and names like it
- Compare Meril and MerrillBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1920sMeril peaked in 1924.
- The top names of 1924The year the most babies were named Meril.
- Names starting with MMost given first.