Merrily
Merrily was given to 5 girls in 2025, #16,473 among girls’ names; 1,037 Americans have been recorded with it since 1936 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Merrily by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Merrily?
#16,473 among girls’ names, 2025
Merrily entered the girls’ rankings after 2015 and stood at #16,473 in 2025.
210 babies in 1942, the peak
Merrily peaked in 1942, when 210 girls were given it, #513 among girls’ names. The 5 births of 2025 are 2% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 5 | #16,473 | under 0.01 |
| 2024 | 6 | #14,678 | under 0.01 |
| 2001 | 5 | #17,043 | under 0.01 |
| 1991 | 5 | #14,582 | under 0.01 |
| 1987 | 5 | #12,534 | under 0.01 |
| 1982 | 5 | #11,631 | under 0.01 |
| 1981 | 7 | #8,695 | under 0.01 |
| 1979 | 6 | #9,734 | under 0.01 |
| 1978 | 6 | #9,293 | under 0.01 |
| 1976 | 7 | #7,817 | under 0.01 |
Every recorded year (47)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1975 | 5 | #10,024 | under 0.01 |
| 1974 | 5 | #9,679 | under 0.01 |
| 1973 | 13 | #4,507 | 0.01 |
| 1972 | 7 | #7,017 | under 0.01 |
| 1971 | 8 | #6,393 | under 0.01 |
| 1970 | 10 | #5,291 | 0.01 |
| 1969 | 5 | #8,233 | under 0.01 |
| 1968 | 9 | #5,022 | 0.01 |
| 1967 | 5 | #7,491 | under 0.01 |
| 1966 | 12 | #3,877 | 0.01 |
| 1965 | 10 | #4,409 | 0.01 |
| 1964 | 23 | #2,642 | 0.01 |
| 1963 | 12 | #3,957 | 0.01 |
| 1962 | 11 | #4,191 | 0.01 |
| 1961 | 13 | #3,731 | 0.01 |
| 1960 | 11 | #4,086 | 0.01 |
| 1959 | 16 | #3,065 | 0.01 |
| 1958 | 15 | #3,187 | 0.01 |
| 1957 | 19 | #2,704 | 0.01 |
| 1956 | 14 | #3,272 | 0.01 |
| 1955 | 14 | #3,183 | 0.01 |
| 1954 | 22 | #2,345 | 0.01 |
| 1953 | 13 | #3,220 | 0.01 |
| 1952 | 15 | #2,881 | 0.01 |
| 1951 | 15 | #2,772 | 0.01 |
| 1950 | 28 | #1,822 | 0.02 |
| 1949 | 29 | #1,792 | 0.02 |
| 1948 | 37 | #1,537 | 0.02 |
| 1947 | 39 | #1,519 | 0.02 |
| 1946 | 66 | #1,044 | 0.04 |
| 1945 | 53 | #1,090 | 0.04 |
| 1944 | 71 | #914 | 0.05 |
| 1943 | 120 | #697 | 0.09 |
| 1942 | 210 | #513 | 0.16 |
| 1941 | 13 | #2,497 | 0.01 |
| 1939 | 7 | #3,670 | 0.01 |
| 1936 | 5 | #4,651 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Merrily a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Merrily has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 47 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Merrily: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Merrily, and how old are they?
An estimated 684 Americans named Merrily and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (66% of everyone recorded); the median is 77 years old and half are between 64 and 83. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 913 people named Merrily (908 women and girls, 5 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 784 born in the U.S. The Census count is 16% above 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 3 names spelled alike, given to 3,150 babies since 1880, Merrily is the second most given (33% 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 Merrily
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 Merrily and names like it
- Compare Merrily and MerrileeBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1940sMerrily peaked in 1942.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Merrily since 1910.
- The top names of 1942The year the most babies were named Merrily.
- The names of the Baby BoomersMost people named Merrily alive today were born 1946-1964.
- Names starting with MMost given first.