Merilee
Merilee was last recorded in 2014, when 5 babies were given it; 1,150 Americans have been recorded with it between 1929 and 2014 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Merilee by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Merilee?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #18,340, in 2014; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
54 babies in 1961, the peak
Merilee peaked in 1961, when 54 girls were given it, #1,543 among girls’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 5 | #18,340 | 2.8 |
| 1998 | 5 | #15,735 | 2.8 |
| 1989 | 11 | #7,275 | 6.0 |
| 1988 | 5 | #13,124 | 2.8 |
| 1987 | 5 | #12,528 | 2.9 |
| 1985 | 8 | #8,034 | 4.6 |
| 1984 | 10 | #6,600 | 5.9 |
| 1983 | 7 | #8,646 | 4.2 |
| 1982 | 15 | #4,855 | 8.9 |
| 1981 | 13 | #5,470 | 7.8 |
Every recorded year (55)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | 17 | #4,445 | 10.2 |
| 1979 | 16 | #4,535 | 10.0 |
| 1978 | 18 | #4,021 | 11.8 |
| 1977 | 15 | #4,564 | 9.8 |
| 1976 | 6 | #8,830 | 4.1 |
| 1975 | 18 | #3,716 | 12.3 |
| 1974 | 15 | #4,161 | 10.2 |
| 1973 | 16 | #3,895 | 11.0 |
| 1972 | 21 | #3,131 | 13.8 |
| 1971 | 22 | #3,119 | 13.2 |
| 1970 | 22 | #3,083 | 12.6 |
| 1969 | 21 | #2,977 | 12.4 |
| 1968 | 11 | #4,396 | 6.7 |
| 1967 | 12 | #3,981 | 7.3 |
| 1966 | 21 | #2,722 | 12.4 |
| 1965 | 24 | #2,511 | 13.6 |
| 1964 | 24 | #2,577 | 12.7 |
| 1963 | 25 | #2,464 | 13.0 |
| 1962 | 36 | #1,932 | 18.3 |
| 1961 | 54 | #1,543 | 26.8 |
| 1960 | 26 | #2,349 | 12.9 |
| 1959 | 21 | #2,564 | 10.4 |
| 1958 | 36 | #1,839 | 17.9 |
| 1957 | 45 | #1,620 | 22.0 |
| 1956 | 32 | #1,918 | 15.9 |
| 1955 | 37 | #1,719 | 18.9 |
| 1954 | 38 | #1,663 | 19.6 |
| 1953 | 38 | #1,607 | 20.2 |
| 1952 | 28 | #1,915 | 15.1 |
| 1951 | 34 | #1,652 | 18.9 |
| 1950 | 31 | #1,703 | 18.1 |
| 1949 | 37 | #1,533 | 21.6 |
| 1948 | 39 | #1,485 | 23.0 |
| 1947 | 31 | #1,744 | 17.5 |
| 1946 | 36 | #1,473 | 22.9 |
| 1945 | 16 | #2,210 | 12.2 |
| 1944 | 22 | #1,847 | 16.6 |
| 1943 | 22 | #1,880 | 15.8 |
| 1942 | 37 | #1,340 | 27.4 |
| 1940 | 12 | #2,521 | 10.5 |
| 1939 | 5 | #4,717 | 4.6 |
| 1937 | 9 | #3,088 | 8.5 |
| 1936 | 7 | #3,609 | 6.7 |
| 1930 | 7 | #3,923 | 6.2 |
| 1929 | 6 | #4,408 | 5.4 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Merilee a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Merilee has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 55 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Merilee: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Merilee, and how old are they?
An estimated 900 Americans named Merilee and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (78% of everyone recorded); the median is 65 years old and half are between 55 and 74. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 1,034 people named Merilee (1,033 women and girls, 1 man or boy). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 975 born in the U.S. The Census count is 6% above that prediction.
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).
Where are babies named Merilee born?
The states with the most babies named Merilee are California, New York and Utah, with 84% of its births recorded by state since 1910; Utah is not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 107 | not ranked | 1.1× |
| New York | 16 | not ranked | 0.2× |
| Utah | 13 | not ranked | 1.5× |
| Washington | 10 | not ranked | 0.5× |
| Illinois | 5 | not ranked | 0.1× |
| Minnesota | 5 | not ranked | 0.2× |
| Oregon | 5 | not ranked | 0.4× |
Where Merilee is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Merilee is most over-represented in California: since 1929 it was given 1.1 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Merilee with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 4 names spelled alike, given to 3,711 babies since 1880, Merilee is the second most given (31% of them).
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 Merilee
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 Merilee and names like it
- Compare Merilee and MerrileeBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1960sMerilee peaked in 1961.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Merilee since 1910.
- The top names of 1961The year the most babies were named Merilee.
- The names of the Baby BoomersMost people named Merilee alive today were born 1946-1964.
- Names starting with MMost given first.