Merril — boys' name

What the Data Says About Merril

The Social Security Administration has registered 858 babies named Merril between 1910 and 2008, spanning 99 consecutive years of U.S. birth records. As a boy's name, Merril currently falls outside the top 1,000 boys' names for 2008. The name reached its historical peak in 1920, when 37 babies received it in a single year. Merril is classified as unisex in SSA records: the opposite-sex variant accounts for 134 additional births since 1914.

Decade-level aggregation shows that Merril performed strongest in the 1920s, accumulating 263 births during that ten-year window. Across the 9 decades of recorded activity, Merril shows a clear decline from its mid-century high. Geographically, the name is most concentrated in Pennsylvania, which accounts for 17 births — the largest state-level total in the dataset — followed by Kentucky and Wisconsin. In total, SSA state-level files list Merril in 3 of the 51 U.S. reporting jurisdictions.

No etymological entry is currently available for Merril 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 858 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.