Merlin — #2075 US boys' name

What the Data Says About Merlin

The Social Security Administration has registered 14,987 babies named Merlin between 1885 and 2024, spanning 140 consecutive years of U.S. birth records. As a boy's name, Merlin currently holds the #2075 rank among boys for 2024. The name reached its historical peak in 1927, when 389 babies received it in a single year. Merlin is classified as unisex in SSA records: the opposite-sex variant accounts for 904 additional births since 1901.

Decade-level aggregation shows that Merlin performed strongest in the 1920s, accumulating 3,322 births during that ten-year window. Across the 15 decades of recorded activity, Merlin shows a clear decline from its mid-century high. Geographically, the name is most concentrated in Wisconsin, which accounts for 1,488 births — the largest state-level total in the dataset — followed by Iowa and Minnesota. In total, SSA state-level files list Merlin in 33 of the 51 U.S. reporting jurisdictions.

No etymological entry is currently available for Merlin in our reference dataset. These figures derive from SSA's annual national and state-level name files, which include any name appearing at least five times in a given year or state-year; names below that threshold are suppressed for privacy and therefore excluded from the totals shown here. The 14,987 total represents a lower bound — actual usage may be higher in years or states where the count fell below the disclosure floor. This page is provided for informational and research purposes only and does not constitute personal, legal, or naming advice.