Recorded 1880–2025 · United States
Myrtle was most popular in 1918, when 4,094 American babies were given the name — ranking #112 that year. In 2025 it ranked #18,449, with 8 births. Across 1880–2025 the Social Security Administration has recorded 136,984 people named Myrtle.
The Social Security Administration’s records begin in 1880, and Myrtle 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 126 of the 146 years since.
The Social Security Administration has recorded 136,984 American births named Myrtle 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 12,222 are estimated to be alive today.
8 American babies were named Myrtle in 2025, ranking #18,449 that year.
Myrtle is too rare for a direction to mean much. It averaged 7 births a year across 2021–2025 against 7 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 Myrtle is a girl’s name — 99.6% of the 136,984 Americans given it were girls and 0.4% were boys. In births since 2016 it is 100% girls and 0% 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 12,222 Americans named Myrtle are alive today — 9% of everyone ever recorded with the name. The median is 82 years old, and half are between 73 and 88.
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.
Greek · the evergreen shrub
How much more common the name is in each state than across the country as a whole.
See Myrtle on the interactive charts
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Source: U.S.A. Social Security Administration. Years 1880–2025. namelegacy.org