Merrel
Merrel was last recorded in 1955, when 5 babies were given it; 269 Americans have been recorded with it between 1908 and 1955 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Merrel by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Merrel?
Unranked in 2025
Its last boys’ rank on record is #4,206, in 1955; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
15 babies in 1922, the peak
Merrel peaked in 1922, when 15 boys were given it, #2,202 among boys’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1955 | 5 | #4,206 | 2.4 |
| 1951 | 5 | #4,071 | 2.7 |
| 1948 | 6 | #3,554 | 3.4 |
| 1947 | 5 | #4,081 | 2.7 |
| 1946 | 6 | #3,406 | 3.7 |
| 1945 | 6 | #3,207 | 4.5 |
| 1942 | 7 | #3,119 | 5.1 |
| 1941 | 7 | #3,045 | 5.7 |
| 1940 | 9 | #2,612 | 7.8 |
| 1939 | 6 | #3,358 | 5.4 |
Every recorded year (34)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1938 | 6 | #3,406 | 5.4 |
| 1936 | 6 | #3,409 | 5.8 |
| 1935 | 6 | #3,522 | 5.8 |
| 1934 | 8 | #2,880 | 7.7 |
| 1933 | 10 | #2,483 | 10.1 |
| 1931 | 7 | #3,295 | 6.7 |
| 1929 | 8 | #3,156 | 7.4 |
| 1928 | 8 | #3,267 | 7.2 |
| 1927 | 6 | #4,042 | 5.3 |
| 1926 | 9 | #3,055 | 8.1 |
| 1925 | 10 | #2,867 | 9.0 |
| 1924 | 9 | #3,173 | 7.9 |
| 1923 | 8 | #3,357 | 7.3 |
| 1922 | 15 | #2,202 | 13.8 |
| 1921 | 6 | #4,176 | 5.4 |
| 1920 | 10 | #2,897 | 9.4 |
| 1919 | 9 | #3,039 | 9.2 |
| 1918 | 5 | #4,583 | 4.9 |
| 1917 | 8 | #3,115 | 8.6 |
| 1916 | 13 | #2,223 | 14.6 |
| 1915 | 9 | #2,755 | 10.6 |
| 1913 | 8 | #2,199 | 15.6 |
| 1912 | 7 | #2,183 | 16.3 |
| 1908 | 6 | #1,314 | 38.9 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Merrel a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 269 Americans recorded as Merrel, 4% are girls and 96% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Merrel: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Merrel, and how old are they?
An estimated 34 Americans named Merrel 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 159 people named Merrel (36 women and girls, 123 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 54 born in the U.S. The Census count is 2.9 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 Merrel?
Merrel is a less common spelling of Merrell: SSA has recorded 269 Merrel and 1,319 Merrell since 1880.
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 22,525 babies since 1880, Merrel is the sixth most given (1.2% of them). In 2025 none of their 22 babies recorded by SSA was a Merrel (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 Merrel
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 Merrel and names like it
- Compare Merrel and MerrellBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1920sMerrel peaked in 1922.
- The top names of 1922The year the most babies were named Merrel.
- Names starting with MMost given first.