Mert
Mert was given to 24 boys in 2025, #4,339 among boys’ names; 554 Americans have been recorded with it since 1915 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Mert by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Mert mean?
Wiktionary, Turkish section
Mert is “a male given name from Persian which means “the manful, brave one”” Its etymology gives the sense “male human” (mert).
From mert (“male human”).
/mært/
Meaning: Wiktionary, Turkish section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Mert?
#4,339 among boys’ names, 2025
Mert rose from #4,829 in 2015 to #4,339 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 10.4 to 14.1 per million.
32 babies in 2018, the peak
Mert peaked in 2018, when 32 boys were given it, #3,488 among boys’ names. The 24 births of 2025 are 75% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 24 | #4,339 | 14.1 |
| 2024 | 14 | #6,364 | 8.1 |
| 2023 | 16 | #5,832 | 9.4 |
| 2022 | 16 | #5,787 | 9.2 |
| 2021 | 13 | #6,555 | 7.4 |
| 2020 | 23 | #4,369 | 13.3 |
| 2019 | 21 | #4,745 | 11.7 |
| 2018 | 32 | #3,488 | 17.6 |
| 2017 | 26 | #4,055 | 14.0 |
| 2016 | 18 | #5,252 | 9.5 |
Every recorded year (40)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 20 | #4,829 | 10.4 |
| 2014 | 23 | #4,342 | 12.0 |
| 2013 | 23 | #4,266 | 12.2 |
| 2012 | 15 | #5,887 | 7.9 |
| 2011 | 16 | #5,584 | 8.4 |
| 2010 | 23 | #4,319 | 12.0 |
| 2009 | 15 | #5,990 | 7.6 |
| 2008 | 13 | #6,640 | 6.4 |
| 2007 | 13 | #6,490 | 6.3 |
| 2006 | 17 | #5,227 | 8.3 |
| 2005 | 10 | #7,477 | 5.0 |
| 2004 | 17 | #4,926 | 8.6 |
| 2003 | 12 | #6,123 | 6.1 |
| 2002 | 16 | #4,835 | 8.2 |
| 2001 | 12 | #5,898 | 6.2 |
| 2000 | 15 | #4,956 | 7.6 |
| 1999 | 13 | #5,223 | 6.8 |
| 1998 | 8 | #7,300 | 4.2 |
| 1997 | 11 | #5,525 | 5.8 |
| 1996 | 8 | #6,902 | 4.2 |
| 1995 | 5 | #9,805 | 2.6 |
| 1993 | 5 | #9,665 | 2.5 |
| 1962 | 5 | #4,440 | 2.4 |
| 1958 | 5 | #4,314 | 2.4 |
| 1942 | 5 | #3,897 | 3.6 |
| 1935 | 5 | #3,991 | 4.8 |
| 1927 | 6 | #4,043 | 5.3 |
| 1926 | 5 | #4,604 | 4.5 |
| 1923 | 5 | #4,663 | 4.6 |
| 1915 | 5 | #4,190 | 5.9 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Mert a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Mert has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 40 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Mert: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Mert, and how old are they?
An estimated 517 Americans named Mert and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (93% of everyone recorded); the median is 13 years old and half are between 8 and 21. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 775 people named Mert (44 women and girls, 731 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 422 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1.8 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census records the name people give, which for many is the short form Mert rather than the name on their birth record, and it counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out.
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 2 names spelled alike, given to 849 babies since 1880, Mert is the most given (65% of them). In 2025 it was given to 24 of their 38 babies (63%), again the most given.
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 Mert
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 Mert and names like it
- Compare Mert and MerritBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sMert peaked in 2018.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Mert since 1910.
- Persian namesWiktionary’s origin for Mert: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2018The year the most babies were named Mert.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Mert alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with MMost given first.