Merilyn
From old English roots, a variant of Marilyn meaning "bitter sea strength".
Name Census estimates that about 1,008 living Americans carry the first name Merilyn. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Merilyn today is around 61 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Merilyn births was 1946 (75 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Merilyn. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Merilyn with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.0K
~ 1 in 340,034 Americans
Peak year
1946
75 babies that year
Average age
61
years old
2024 SSA rank
#14,626
Tracked since 1915
Census
Merilyn in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,692 people with the first name Merilyn, which placed it at #8,554 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#8,554
National first-name rank
People counted
1.7K
1,692 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
62.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Merilyn
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Merilyn is White at 62.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (13.2%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (11.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Merilyn described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Merilyn at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White62.6% · 1,059
- Hispanic or Latino13.2% · 224
- Asian and Pacific Islander11.3% · 192
- Black or African American10.5% · 178
- Two or more races2.0% · 34
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 5
Popularity
Merilyn: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Merilyn from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1940s, with 585 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1940s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Merilyn by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Merilyn during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Merilyns live
The SSA's state-level files cover 14 states and territories. California, New York, Massachusetts recorded the most babies named Merilyn, while Utah, New Jersey, Missouri recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 24 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Merilyn
The name Merilyn is a variant spelling of the feminine given name Marilyn, which is derived from the ancient Hebrew name Mary. Mary itself is the English form of the biblical name Miriam, which is thought to be derived from the Egyptian root "mr" meaning "bitter" or "beloved." In ancient Hebrew culture, the name Miriam was borne by the sister of Moses and Aaron, a prominent figure in the Bible.
The variant spelling Merilyn emerged in the early 20th century, likely influenced by the popularity of the actress Marilyn Monroe, whose birth name was Norma Jeane Mortenson. While the origin of Marilyn Monroe's stage name is uncertain, it has been suggested that she may have chosen the name as a combination of her mother's maiden name, "Monroe," and the first name "Marilyn."
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Merilyn can be found in the 1920 United States Census, where a few individuals were listed with this spelling. However, it was not until after Marilyn Monroe's rise to fame in the 1950s that the variant spelling gained more widespread use.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals with the name Merilyn or its variations. One of the earliest was Merilyn Sakova (1923-2012), a Canadian author and educator who wrote several books on Native American history and culture. Another was Merilyn Simonds (born 1949), a Canadian author known for her works of creative non-fiction and poetry.
In the realm of sports, Merilyn Hacker (born 1942) is an American poet and academic who has won numerous awards for her work, including the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize and the Lambda Literary Award. Merilyn Manley-Abbott (born 1945) is a former Australian sprinter who competed in the 1964 and 1968 Olympic Games, winning a silver medal in the 4x100m relay in 1968.
Finally, Merilyn Phillips (1949-2019) was an American actress and singer best known for her role as Sandy Ritz in the 1978 film adaptation of the musical Grease, starring alongside John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John.
People
Merilyn + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Merilyn as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with M
Other first names starting with M with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Merilyn: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Merilyn?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,008 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Merilyn going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 340,034 US residents.
Is Merilyn a common name?
We classify Merilyn as "Rare". It ranks above 90.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,317 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Merilyn most popular?
The single biggest year for Merilyn was 1946, when 75 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Merilyn is about 61 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Merilyn in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,692 people with the name Merilyn, or 0.56 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #8,554 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Merilyn in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Merilyn?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Merilyn appears almost entirely female. Of the 1,689 people counted with this name, 99.5% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Merilyn?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Merilyn is White at 62.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (13.2%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (11.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Merilyn most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Merilyn in the 2020 Census, accounting for 62.6% (1,059 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Merilyn in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Merilyn a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Merilyn in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Merilyn still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Merilyn in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Merilyn can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have Merilyn as a first name?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.