Merriam
Merriam was given to 5 girls in 2025, #16,472 among girls’ names; 351 Americans have been recorded with it since 1912 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Merriam by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Merriam?
#16,472 among girls’ names, 2025
Merriam entered the girls’ rankings after 2015 and stood at #16,472 in 2025.
16 babies in 1922, the peak
Merriam peaked in 1922, when 16 girls were given it, #2,357 among girls’ names. The 5 births of 2025 are 31% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 5 | #16,472 | 3.1 |
| 2018 | 6 | #15,036 | 3.5 |
| 2006 | 6 | #16,467 | 3.2 |
| 2005 | 5 | #18,261 | 2.7 |
| 1999 | 5 | #16,015 | 2.8 |
| 1961 | 5 | #7,216 | 2.5 |
| 1958 | 5 | #6,709 | 2.5 |
| 1955 | 6 | #5,637 | 3.1 |
| 1953 | 5 | #6,252 | 2.7 |
| 1952 | 5 | #6,135 | 2.7 |
Every recorded year (46)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1951 | 6 | #5,229 | 3.3 |
| 1950 | 5 | #5,847 | 2.9 |
| 1948 | 9 | #3,786 | 5.3 |
| 1947 | 8 | #4,230 | 4.5 |
| 1946 | 6 | #4,799 | 3.8 |
| 1945 | 5 | #5,025 | 3.8 |
| 1944 | 5 | #5,048 | 3.8 |
| 1943 | 14 | #2,519 | 10.0 |
| 1941 | 9 | #3,172 | 7.4 |
| 1940 | 8 | #3,417 | 7.0 |
| 1938 | 5 | #4,776 | 4.5 |
| 1937 | 5 | #4,713 | 4.7 |
| 1936 | 10 | #2,798 | 9.6 |
| 1935 | 6 | #4,074 | 5.7 |
| 1934 | 11 | #2,675 | 10.5 |
| 1933 | 5 | #4,659 | 5.0 |
| 1932 | 8 | #3,478 | 7.5 |
| 1931 | 5 | #4,766 | 4.7 |
| 1929 | 11 | #2,859 | 9.9 |
| 1928 | 7 | #4,047 | 6.1 |
| 1927 | 7 | #4,143 | 5.9 |
| 1926 | 8 | #3,788 | 6.7 |
| 1925 | 9 | #3,567 | 7.4 |
| 1924 | 12 | #2,916 | 9.6 |
| 1923 | 9 | #3,552 | 7.5 |
| 1922 | 16 | #2,357 | 13.3 |
| 1921 | 12 | #2,886 | 9.7 |
| 1920 | 5 | #5,507 | 4.2 |
| 1919 | 11 | #2,938 | 9.7 |
| 1918 | 13 | #2,624 | 11.2 |
| 1917 | 12 | #2,654 | 11.1 |
| 1916 | 11 | #2,772 | 10.5 |
| 1915 | 8 | #3,329 | 8.1 |
| 1914 | 7 | #3,079 | 9.2 |
| 1913 | 5 | #3,531 | 8.0 |
| 1912 | 5 | #3,285 | 9.0 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Merriam a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Merriam has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 46 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Merriam: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Merriam, and how old are they?
An estimated 104 Americans named Merriam and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (30% of everyone recorded); the median is 76 years old and half are between 27 and 83. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 361 people named Merriam (357 women and girls, 4 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 131 born in the U.S. The Census count is 2.8 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 4 names spelled alike, given to 1,952 babies since 1880, Merriam is the second most given (18% 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 Merriam
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 Merriam and names like it
- Compare Merriam and MeriamBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1920sMerriam peaked in 1922.
- The top names of 1922The year the most babies were named Merriam.
- The names of the Baby BoomersMost people named Merriam alive today were born 1946-1964.
- Names starting with MMost given first.