Recorded 1908–2025 · United States
Merlyn was most popular in 1930, when 159 American babies were given the name — ranking #990 that year. In 2025 it ranked #13,540, with 13 births. Across 1880–2025 the Social Security Administration has recorded 5,045 people named Merlyn.
Merlyn first appears in Social Security Administration records in 1908, which makes it about 117 years old as a recorded American name. It has been recorded in 113 of the 118 years since.
The Social Security Administration has recorded 5,045 American births named Merlyn between 1880 and 2025. That is recorded US births, not a world population — it counts people issued a Social Security number at birth in the United States. Of those, roughly 1,819 are estimated to be alive today.
13 American babies were named Merlyn in 2025, ranking #13,540 that year.
Merlyn is too rare for a direction to mean much. It averaged 13 births a year across 2021–2025 against 13 a year a decade earlier — at these counts a single baby moves the percentage, and any year under five births is withheld at source.
Measured on recorded births. American births overall have fallen since 2007, so most established names lose births over any recent decade — a name can shed births and still hold its rank. Compare the rank above, which is measured against the other names of the same year.
Across the whole record Merlyn is a unisex name — 32.4% of the 5,045 Americans given it were girls and 67.6% were boys. In births since 2016 it is 69% girls and 31% boys.
Counted from every US birth the Social Security Administration recorded under this name, so it reflects use rather than opinion. A name given to fewer than five babies of one sex in a year is withheld at source and is not counted.
Roughly 1,819 Americans named Merlyn are alive today — 36% of everyone ever recorded with the name. The median is 69 years old, and half are between 31 and 82. That is a wide band, the mark of a name in steady use across generations rather than a passing fashion.
An estimate, not a count. Recorded births are carried forward through the Social Security Administration’s 2023 period life table, by age and sex. That table describes mortality in one recent year, so it credits the oldest cohorts with today’s survival rather than the harsher rates they actually lived through — the further back a name peaked, the more this will overstate how many remain. It counts people issued a Social Security number at birth, not immigrants who arrived later.
How much more common the name is in each state than across the country as a whole.
See Merlyn on the interactive charts
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Source: U.S.A. Social Security Administration. Years 1880–2025. namelegacy.org