Name Trends

See the popularity of first names over time in the USA

How popular is “Merlin” in the USA?

Number of people named “Merlin” by birth year

This chart shows how many people named “Merlin” 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 “Merlin” by birth year

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

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

Bias in sex for “Merlin” by birth year

This chart shows how “Merlin” 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
1885 6 0.000024911 6 -100%
1887 8 0.000032337 8 -100%
1890 5 0.000016589 5 -100%
1891 6 0.00002093 6 -100%
1895 10 0.000028488 10 -100%
1896 6 0.000016784 6 -100%
1898 7 0.000018351 7 -100%
1899 8 0.000023583 8 -100%
1900 8 0.000017768 8 -100%
1901 13 0.000037593 6 7 -8%
1902 14 0.000036201 14 -100%
1903 9 0.00002361 9 -100%
1904 14 0.000034698 14 -100%
1905 10 0.000023589 10 -100%
1906 12 0.000028008 12 -100%
1907 21 0.000045123 21 -100%
1908 30 0.000061394 30 -100%
1909 20 0.000039122 20 -100%
1910 23 0.000038936 23 -100%
1911 33 0.00005122 33 -100%
1912 82 0.000082991 6 76 -85%
1913 85 0.000074751 85 -100%
1914 127 0.000089667 127 -100%
1915 179 0.000097685 179 -100%
1916 231 0.000119416 11 220 -90%
1917 242 0.000120593 12 230 -90%
1918 280 0.000128966 12 268 -91%
1919 259 0.000122735 8 251 -94%
1920 321 0.000141869 7 314 -96%
1921 353 0.00015121 11 342 -94%
1922 338 0.000147653 10 328 -94%
1923 276 0.000119871 10 266 -93%
1924 347 0.0001457 10 337 -94%
1925 359 0.000153859 16 343 -91%
1926 382 0.000166383 14 368 -93%
1927 405 0.000174617 16 389 -92%
1928 314 0.00013888 7 307 -96%
1929 340 0.000155098 12 328 -93%
1930 338 0.000152027 5 333 -97%
1931 378 0.000179625 15 363 -92%
1932 324 0.000153461 10 314 -94%
1933 311 0.000155543 9 302 -94%
1934 289 0.000139155 6 283 -96%
1935 319 0.000152639 11 308 -93%
1936 289 0.000139104 15 274 -90%
1937 257 0.000120619 257 -100%
1938 284 0.000128357 284 -100%
1939 254 0.000115274 9 245 -93%
1940 256 0.000111175 7 249 -95%
1941 264 0.000108355 6 258 -95%
1942 225 0.000082363 8 217 -93%
1943 271 0.000096012 5 266 -96%
1944 208 0.000077321 208 -100%
1945 194 0.000073127 7 187 -93%
1946 214 0.000066973 7 207 -93%
1947 174 0.000048302 11 163 -87%
1948 167 0.00004837 12 155 -86%
1949 155 0.000044479 5 150 -94%
1950 175 0.000049952 175 -100%
1951 176 0.000047778 176 -100%
1952 162 0.000042654 6 156 -93%
1953 158 0.000041 158 -100%
1954 159 0.000039943 8 151 -90%
1955 181 0.00004508 6 175 -93%
1956 155 0.000037594 5 150 -94%
1957 152 0.000036172 5 147 -93%
1958 161 0.000038946 5 156 -94%
1959 130 0.000031265 130 -100%
1960 105 0.000025278 105 -100%
1961 110 0.000026555 110 -100%
1962 95 0.000023542 95 -100%
1963 109 0.000027538 109 -100%
1964 100 0.000025723 5 95 -90%
1965 81 0.000022342 81 -100%
1966 96 0.000027621 9 87 -81%
1967 73 0.000021503 73 -100%
1968 65 0.00001924 65 -100%
1969 74 0.000021293 74 -100%
1970 48 0.000013309 48 -100%
1971 65 0.000018937 65 -100%
1972 77 0.000024499 6 71 -84%
1973 55 0.000018231 5 50 -82%
1974 57 0.00001875 57 -100%
1975 48 0.000015897 48 -100%
1976 53 0.000017467 53 -100%
1977 48 0.000015111 48 -100%
1978 48 0.000015123 48 -100%
1979 45 0.000013526 45 -100%
1980 54 0.000015677 6 48 -78%
1981 42 0.000012141 42 -100%
1982 50 0.000014253 5 45 -80%
1983 47 0.000013571 7 40 -70%
1984 39 0.000011179 39 -100%
1985 44 0.000012328 44 -100%
1986 34 0.000009558 34 -100%
1987 45 0.000012481 6 39 -73%
1988 49 0.000013261 49 -100%
1989 35 0.000009104 8 27 -54%
1990 54 0.000013662 10 44 -63%
1991 53 0.000013606 11 42 -58%
1992 52 0.000013537 19 33 -27%
1993 47 0.000012466 6 41 -74%
1994 46 0.000012373 18 28 -22%
1995 59 0.000016111 19 40 -36%
1996 52 0.000014258 13 39 -50%
1997 37 0.000010205 7 30 -62%
1998 55 0.000014953 10 45 -64%
1999 54 0.000014619 5 49 -81%
2000 59 0.000015609 12 47 -59%
2001 68 0.000018165 14 54 -59%
2002 58 0.000015515 15 43 -48%
2003 74 0.000019462 30 44 -19%
2004 57 0.000014918 12 45 -58%
2005 55 0.000014305 18 37 -35%
2006 71 0.000017947 22 49 -38%
2007 68 0.00001701 25 43 -26%
2008 66 0.000016791 26 40 -21%
2009 57 0.000014921 17 40 -40%
2010 38 0.000010282 15 23 -21%
2011 43 0.000011756 12 31 -44%
2012 54 0.000014765 15 39 -44%
2013 45 0.000012343 8 37 -64%
2014 46 0.000012411 12 34 -48%
2015 47 0.0000127 12 35 -49%
2016 51 0.000013901 11 40 -57%
2017 68 0.000019015 14 54 -59%
2018 69 0.000019625 12 57 -65%
2019 63 0.000018151 10 53 -68%
2020 69 0.000020655 17 52 -51%
2021 82 0.000024203 12 70 -71%
2022 60 0.000017735 11 49 -63%
2023 75 0.00002265 13 62 -65%
2024 85 0.000025537 13 72 -69%

Explore other names

These names are alphabetically near to Merlin:

  1. Merlene
  2. Merley
  3. Merli
  4. Merliah
  5. Merlie
  6. Merlin (this page)
  7. Merlina
  8. Merlinda
  9. Merline
  10. Merlisa
  11. Merlon