# Merritt (first name)

Source: https://namelineage.com/first-name/merritt/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. US counts from the Social Security Administration; England and Wales counts from the Office for National Statistics; meaning and etymology from Wiktionary. Data updated 2026-11-11.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Usually given to | boys and girls |
| Origin | not recorded |
| Meaning | not recorded |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Nicknames | none recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |
| US babies named this | 9,382 since 1880 |
| Boys / girls in the US | 6,151 / 3,231 (34% girls) |
| Babies in England and Wales | not in the ONS data |

## Popularity

The last 15 years of each series. A year is missing when too few babies were given the name for the agency to publish it: five in the US, three in England and Wales.

### United States, girls

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 38 | 3,982 |
| 2012 | 43 | 3,690 |
| 2013 | 50 | 3,250 |
| 2014 | 87 | 2,191 |
| 2015 | 81 | 2,308 |
| 2016 | 155 | 1,481 |
| 2017 | 175 | 1,333 |
| 2018 | 151 | 1,459 |
| 2019 | 133 | 1,603 |
| 2020 | 139 | 1,531 |
| 2021 | 127 | 1,648 |
| 2022 | 139 | 1,544 |
| 2023 | 136 | 1,563 |
| 2024 | 159 | 1,410 |
| 2025 | 401 | 703 |

### United States, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 40 | 2,936 |
| 2012 | 42 | 2,853 |
| 2013 | 62 | 2,156 |
| 2014 | 65 | 2,133 |
| 2015 | 71 | 2,032 |
| 2016 | 78 | 1,898 |
| 2017 | 105 | 1,565 |
| 2018 | 106 | 1,581 |
| 2019 | 87 | 1,783 |
| 2020 | 80 | 1,862 |
| 2021 | 82 | 1,882 |
| 2022 | 78 | 1,977 |
| 2023 | 83 | 1,904 |
| 2024 | 84 | 1,900 |
| 2025 | 117 | 1,505 |

## People named Merritt

- Merritt Wever, American actress
- William Merritt Chase, American painter (1849–1916)
- Merritt Butrick, American actor (1959-1989)
- Merritt Lyndon Fernald, American botanist (1873-1950)
- Merritt Patterson, Canadian actress
- Kyle MacLachlan, American actor

## How to read these numbers

A count is babies registered with that name in that year, not people alive now, so a name common a century ago can have a large total and few recent births.