Name Trends

See the popularity of first names over time in the USA

How popular is “Merle” in the USA?

Number of people named “Merle” by birth year

This chart shows how many people named “Merle” were born each year.

Due to changes to population growth and data collection rates over time, this isn't a good chart for understanding popularity.

Popularity of “Merle” by birth year

This chart shows how the popularity of “Merle” has changed over time.

Popularity is the number of people named “Merle” born in that year divided by the total number of births for that year.

Bias in sex for “Merle” by birth year

This chart shows how “Merle” has been used as gendered name over time. The scale ranges from 1 (only females) to -1 (only males).

Sex is a required field in SSA's Social Security Card applications (only 2 options). Most applications are filed around a person's time of birth.

The raw data

This table shows the data used in the above charts.

Year Count Proportion Females Males Bias toward female
1880 23 0.000114153 6 17 -48%
1881 19 0.000098605 6 13 -37%
1882 24 0.000108336 11 13 -8%
1883 38 0.000175159 15 23 -21%
1884 35 0.00014376 16 19 -9%
1885 42 0.00017438 16 26 -24%
1886 36 0.000141002 14 22 -22%
1887 36 0.000145518 12 24 -33%
1888 40 0.000133568 25 15 25%
1889 77 0.000266486 42 35 9%
1890 94 0.000311877 68 26 45%
1891 80 0.000279064 46 34 15%
1892 98 0.000293085 60 38 22%
1893 88 0.000270584 61 27 39%
1894 108 0.000318876 70 38 30%
1895 137 0.000390291 91 46 33%
1896 130 0.000363653 86 44 32%
1897 104 0.000299749 70 34 35%
1898 126 0.000330314 77 49 22%
1899 130 0.000383216 88 42 35%
1900 167 0.000370898 113 54 35%
1901 143 0.000413519 91 52 27%
1902 170 0.00043958 112 58 32%
1903 181 0.000474816 112 69 24%
1904 145 0.000359369 92 53 27%
1905 169 0.000398658 110 59 30%
1906 156 0.000364102 84 72 8%
1907 194 0.000416855 112 82 15%
1908 196 0.000401106 120 76 22%
1909 196 0.000383394 120 76 22%
1910 238 0.000402904 138 100 16%
1911 266 0.000412865 151 115 14%
1912 489 0.000494908 221 268 -10%
1913 563 0.000495115 232 331 -18%
1914 662 0.000467401 247 415 -25%
1915 948 0.000517347 353 595 -26%
1916 977 0.000505062 373 604 -24%
1917 1061 0.000528716 360 701 -32%
1918 1170 0.000538895 375 795 -36%
1919 1091 0.000517002 370 721 -32%
1920 1222 0.000540076 403 819 -34%
1921 1275 0.000546154 442 833 -31%
1922 1229 0.000536879 394 835 -36%
1923 1184 0.000514228 409 775 -31%
1924 1165 0.000489165 383 782 -34%
1925 1240 0.000531436 404 836 -35%
1926 1127 0.000490874 340 787 -40%
1927 1119 0.000482461 311 808 -44%
1928 1057 0.000467505 293 764 -45%
1929 955 0.000435643 224 731 -53%
1930 948 0.000426396 237 711 -50%
1931 875 0.000415798 213 662 -51%
1932 793 0.0003756 200 593 -50%
1933 756 0.000378105 183 573 -52%
1934 811 0.000390502 212 599 -48%
1935 791 0.000378487 270 521 -32%
1936 909 0.000437529 341 568 -25%
1937 821 0.000385325 302 519 -26%
1938 789 0.000356598 264 525 -33%
1939 804 0.000364884 275 529 -32%
1940 704 0.00030573 237 467 -33%
1941 707 0.000290179 225 482 -36%
1942 717 0.000262463 275 442 -23%
1943 680 0.000240916 232 448 -32%
1944 630 0.000234194 239 391 -24%
1945 578 0.000217874 205 373 -29%
1946 612 0.000191531 206 406 -33%
1947 595 0.000165171 203 392 -32%
1948 611 0.000176972 179 432 -41%
1949 507 0.00014549 153 354 -40%
1950 536 0.000152996 141 395 -47%
1951 504 0.000136818 136 368 -46%
1952 474 0.000124802 134 340 -43%
1953 448 0.000116254 123 325 -45%
1954 444 0.000111538 137 307 -38%
1955 404 0.000100621 115 289 -43%
1956 399 0.000096773 107 292 -46%
1957 343 0.000081625 88 255 -49%
1958 327 0.000079102 95 232 -42%
1959 302 0.000072631 75 227 -50%
1960 238 0.000057297 62 176 -48%
1961 235 0.000056732 59 176 -50%
1962 233 0.000057739 53 180 -55%
1963 233 0.000058865 46 187 -61%
1964 204 0.000052474 38 166 -63%
1965 183 0.000050477 24 159 -74%
1966 145 0.000041719 24 121 -67%
1967 110 0.000032402 19 91 -65%
1968 157 0.000046472 21 136 -73%
1969 128 0.000036831 17 111 -73%
1970 149 0.000041314 18 131 -76%
1971 167 0.000048655 10 157 -88%
1972 124 0.000039453 13 111 -79%
1973 106 0.000035136 13 93 -75%
1974 88 0.000028947 9 79 -80%
1975 81 0.000026827 8 73 -80%
1976 70 0.00002307 5 65 -86%
1977 80 0.000025185 80 -100%
1978 71 0.00002237 11 60 -69%
1979 87 0.00002615 7 80 -84%
1980 64 0.00001858 5 59 -84%
1981 80 0.000023126 13 67 -68%
1982 65 0.000018529 8 57 -75%
1983 65 0.000018768 65 -100%
1984 57 0.000016338 6 51 -79%
1985 49 0.000013729 49 -100%
1986 41 0.000011526 6 35 -71%
1987 49 0.00001359 6 43 -76%
1988 48 0.00001299 48 -100%
1989 41 0.000010665 13 28 -37%
1990 33 0.000008349 33 -100%
1991 37 0.000009499 5 32 -73%
1992 39 0.000010153 6 33 -69%
1993 40 0.000010609 6 34 -70%
1994 26 0.000006994 26 -100%
1995 41 0.000011196 6 35 -71%
1996 28 0.000007677 28 -100%
1997 28 0.000007723 28 -100%
1998 20 0.000005437 20 -100%
1999 23 0.000006227 23 -100%
2000 26 0.000006878 26 -100%
2001 30 0.000008014 30 -100%
2002 13 0.000003478 13 -100%
2003 27 0.000007101 5 22 -63%
2004 26 0.000006805 5 21 -62%
2005 18 0.000004682 18 -100%
2006 26 0.000006572 26 -100%
2007 17 0.000004252 17 -100%
2008 19 0.000004834 19 -100%
2009 22 0.000005759 22 -100%
2010 22 0.000005953 22 -100%
2011 18 0.000004921 18 -100%
2012 9 0.000002461 9 -100%
2013 16 0.000004389 16 -100%
2014 15 0.000004047 15 -100%
2015 21 0.000005674 21 -100%
2016 14 0.000003816 14 -100%
2017 20 0.000005593 20 -100%
2018 23 0.000006542 23 -100%
2019 22 0.000006338 22 -100%
2020 32 0.000009579 32 -100%
2021 22 0.000006494 22 -100%
2022 27 0.000007981 27 -100%
2023 39 0.000011778 39 -100%
2024 22 0.00000661 22 -100%

Explore other names

These names are alphabetically near to Merle:

  1. Merjem
  2. Merl
  3. Merla
  4. Merlan
  5. Merland
  6. Merle (this page)
  7. Merleah
  8. Merlean
  9. Merlee
  10. Merleen
  11. Merlen