Merlin vs Merlyn
American parents have registered 15,968 Merlins since 1880, against 5,045 Merlyns. Merlin is still ahead, with 73 babies in 2025.
Babies given each name, 1880–2025
Merlin Merlyn
Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.
Who was ahead
Merlin has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1885 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.
The closest they came was 1937, when Merlin had 257 and Merlyn had 132.
Side by side
| Merlin | Merlyn | |
|---|---|---|
| Total US births | 15,968 | 5,045 |
| Most in one year | 405 | 159 |
| Babies in 2025 | 73 | 13 |
| Estimated living today | 6,200 | 1,800 |
| Median age today | 57 | 67 |
| Peak year | 1927 | 1930 |
| Best rank | 287th boys | 508th boys |
| Rank in 2025 | 2,332nd | 10,695th |
| First recorded | 1885 | 1908 |
| Girls / boys | 919 / 15,049 | 1,635 / 3,410 |
A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.
Which name is older
Half of the Merlyns alive today are over 67; half the Merlins are over 57. That is 10 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.
Where each one is strongest
- Merlin Iowa (9.6×), Nebraska (7.2×), Wisconsin (7.1×)
- Merlyn South Dakota (27.7×), Iowa (22.3×), Nebraska (11.6×)
How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.
Both names abroad
Countries whose statistics office publishes both names, so the comparison can be made somewhere other than the United States.
| Country | Merlin | Merlyn |
|---|---|---|
| England and Wales | 411 | 18 |
Every spelling a country files separately is added together, over whatever years that country publishes — which is not the same range in any two of them, so read the columns against each other and not the rows.
Compare something else
Related comparisons
Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Merlin and Merlyn.