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Name Lineage

    The surname Merton

    An English place surname, carried by 417 people in the United States.

    Pronounced /ˈmɝ.tən/ 2 syllables Soundex M635

    Merton: #50,196 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#10Martinez#100Jimenez#1,000Archer#10,001Dubon Merton #50,196, 417 people Merton: #50,196 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#100Jimenez Merton #50,196, 417 people
    Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Merton is more common than 69.1% of them.

    Origin

    English origin

    Inherited from Old English Merantūn.

    Merton is a place surname: taken from where an ancestor lived or came from.

    One of 1,446 English surnames on this site.

    Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

    How common it is

    2010 US Census

    There were 417 people named Merton in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 740,397 Americans. That is down 5.2% since 2000, when the Census counted 440.

    #50,196
    rank among US surnames
    417
    people in 2010
    0.1
    per 100,000 Americans
    -5.2%
    change since 2000 (was #45,735)

    Who is named Merton

    Race and Hispanic origin as people reported it in the 2010 Census

    85% of people named Merton identified as white (not Hispanic), 5.0% as Black (not Hispanic) and 3.8% as Asian and Pacific Islander.

    • White (not Hispanic) 85%
    • Black (not Hispanic) 5.0%
    • Asian and Pacific Islander 3.8%
    • Hispanic or Latino (any race) 3.4%
    The Census suppresses very small shares to protect privacy; Native American, Multiracial are not shown.

    Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

    Famous Mertons

    4 notable people on Wikidata, most written-about first

    • Robert K. Merton
      American sociologist (1910–2003)
    • Robert C. Merton
      American economist (1944-)
    • John Merton
      American actor (1901–1959)
    • Paul Merton
      British comedian, born 1957

    Notable Mertons come mostly from the United States (3) and the United Kingdom (1).

    Spellings and sound-alikes

    Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

    Surnames that sound like Merton

    Merton has the Soundex code M635, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code M635.

    Other English surnames

    All 1,446 English surnames

    Questions

    Where does the surname Merton come from?
    Inherited from Old English Merantūn.
    How common is the surname Merton?
    417 people in the United States had the surname Merton in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 740,397 Americans. It ranked 50,196th of 162,253 surnames.
    What ethnicity is the surname Merton?
    In the 2010 Census, 85% of people named Merton identified as white (not Hispanic), and 5.0% as Black (not Hispanic).
    Who is the most famous person named Merton?
    Robert K. Merton, American sociologist (1910–2003), followed by Robert C. Merton.
    Where is the surname Merton most common?
    Wikidata records people named Merton in the United States and the United Kingdom.
    How do you pronounce Merton?
    Merton is /ˈmɝ.tən/, 2 syllables.
    What type of surname is Merton?
    Merton is a place surname, taken from where an ancestor lived or came from.
    Is the surname Merton getting more or less common?
    Less common. 440 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 417 in 2010, down 5.2%.
    Is Merton also a first name?
    Yes. Merton is used as a first name as well as a surname; its first-name page has the meaning and how many babies were given it.