Merlie
Merlie was last recorded in 1948, when 5 babies were given it; 261 Americans have been recorded with it between 1897 and 1948 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Merlie by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Merlie?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #5,766, in 1948; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
15 babies in 1921, the peak
Merlie peaked in 1921, when 15 girls were given it, #2,462 among girls’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1948 | 5 | #5,766 | 2.9 |
| 1947 | 6 | #5,115 | 3.4 |
| 1946 | 9 | #3,580 | 5.7 |
| 1942 | 5 | #5,130 | 3.7 |
| 1939 | 9 | #3,071 | 8.2 |
| 1935 | 6 | #4,073 | 5.7 |
| 1934 | 9 | #3,084 | 8.6 |
| 1933 | 5 | #4,657 | 5.0 |
| 1932 | 6 | #4,252 | 5.6 |
| 1930 | 9 | #3,244 | 8.0 |
Every recorded year (33)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1929 | 5 | #5,061 | 4.5 |
| 1928 | 6 | #4,551 | 5.2 |
| 1927 | 9 | #3,477 | 7.5 |
| 1925 | 8 | #3,921 | 6.6 |
| 1924 | 10 | #3,296 | 8.0 |
| 1923 | 8 | #3,861 | 6.6 |
| 1922 | 13 | #2,717 | 10.8 |
| 1921 | 15 | #2,462 | 12.2 |
| 1920 | 10 | #3,273 | 8.3 |
| 1919 | 7 | #4,107 | 6.2 |
| 1918 | 10 | #3,168 | 8.6 |
| 1917 | 10 | #3,004 | 9.2 |
| 1916 | 5 | #4,916 | 4.8 |
| 1915 | 10 | #2,837 | 10.2 |
| 1914 | 5 | #4,006 | 6.6 |
| 1913 | 12 | #1,851 | 19.2 |
| 1912 | 9 | #2,082 | 16.1 |
| 1911 | 6 | #2,380 | 14.3 |
| 1910 | 5 | #2,664 | 12.6 |
| 1908 | 8 | #1,634 | 23.9 |
| 1906 | 6 | #1,877 | 20.3 |
| 1901 | 9 | #1,199 | 37.6 |
| 1897 | 6 | #1,493 | 25.6 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Merlie a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Merlie has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 33 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Merlie: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Merlie, and how old are they?
An estimated 25 Americans named Merlie 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 289 people named Merlie (275 women and girls, 14 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 44 born in the U.S. The Census count is 6.6 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).
Names spelled alike
Of these 6 names spelled alike, given to 2,621 babies since 1880, Merlie is the fourth most given (10.0% 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 Merlie
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 Merlie and names like it
- Compare Merlie and MerileeBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1920sMerlie peaked in 1921.
- West Virginia’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Merlie since 1910.
- The top names of 1921The year the most babies were named Merlie.
- Names starting with MMost given first.