Recorded 1880–1995 · United States
Merton was most popular in 1920, when 150 American babies were given the name — ranking #1,066 that year. It was not recorded in 2025. Across 1880–2025 the Social Security Administration has recorded 4,247 people named Merton.
The Social Security Administration’s records begin in 1880, and Merton is already there in that first year — so the name is older than the record and these figures cannot date it. It has been recorded in 105 of the 146 years since. It was last recorded in 1995.
The Social Security Administration has recorded 4,247 American births named Merton 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 693 are estimated to be alive today.
Merton was not recorded in 2025. The SSA withholds any name given to fewer than five babies in a year, so fewer than five American babies were given it.
Across the whole record Merton is a boy’s name — 0.0% of the 4,247 Americans given it were girls and 100.0% were 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 693 Americans named Merton are alive today — 16% of everyone ever recorded with the name. The median is 75 years old, and half are between 62 and 84.
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 Merton on the interactive charts
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Source: U.S.A. Social Security Administration. Years 1880–2025. namelegacy.org