Merton — boys' name

What the Data Says About Merton

The Social Security Administration has registered 4,247 babies named Merton between 1880 and 1995, spanning 116 consecutive years of U.S. birth records. As a boy's name, Merton currently falls outside the top 1,000 boys' names for 1995. The name reached its historical peak in 1920, when 150 babies received it in a single year.

Decade-level aggregation shows that Merton performed strongest in the 1920s, accumulating 1,311 births during that ten-year window. Across the 12 decades of recorded activity, Merton shows a clear decline from its mid-century high. Geographically, the name is most concentrated in New York, which accounts for 465 births — the largest state-level total in the dataset — followed by Maine and Minnesota. In total, SSA state-level files list Merton in 19 of the 51 U.S. reporting jurisdictions.

No etymological entry is currently available for Merton 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 4,247 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.