Merlin vs Merrill
American parents have registered 15,968 Merlins since 1880, against 15,065 Merrills. Merlin is still ahead, with 73 babies in 2025.
Babies given each name, 1880–2025
Merlin Merrill
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
Of the 146 years in which either name was published, Merrill for 79 years and Merlin for 67 years. The lead changed hands 19 times.
- 1880–1919 Merrill ahead
- 1920–1941 Merlin ahead, apart from one short spell
- 1945–1971 Merrill ahead, apart from 2 short spells
- 1972–1974 Merlin ahead
- 1975–1987 Merrill ahead, apart from one short spell
- 1990–2025 Merlin ahead
10 shorter spells of a year or two are folded into the spans above rather than listed separately.
Side by side
| Merlin | Merrill | |
|---|---|---|
| Total US births | 15,968 | 15,065 |
| Most in one year | 405 | 321 |
| Babies in 2025 | 73 | 22 |
| Estimated living today | 6,200 | 5,400 |
| Median age today | 57 | 66 |
| Peak year | 1927 | 1926 |
| Best rank | 287th boys | 331st boys |
| Rank in 2025 | 2,332nd | 6,143rd |
| First recorded | 1885 | 1880 |
| Girls / boys | 919 / 15,049 | 2,077 / 12,988 |
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 Merrills alive today are over 66; half the Merlins are over 57. That is 9 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×)
- Merrill Utah (8.1×), Iowa (5.9×), Vermont (5.5×)
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 | Merrill |
|---|---|---|
| England and Wales | 411 | 3 |
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 Merrill.