Muriel
given name · Latin script
Meaning, in English: from Celtic Muirgel/Muirgheal ‘sea-bright’, also from residence near a pleasant hill; first attested Ougrim filius Miriel’ 1188 P
Recorded as a female name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/mjʊəɹɪəl/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Muriel is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in China than in any other country.
- FRFrance≈1 in 1.2K(inferred from the name graph)
- BEBelgium≈1 in 1.5K
- GBUnited Kingdom≈1 in 5.3K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- China (inferred from the name graph)
- Sources
- 363 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 1.2K (inferred from the name graph)
≈110,000 people, est.
Highest-authority source
France, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
from Celtic Muirgel/Muirgheal ‘sea-bright’, also from residence near a pleasant hill; first attested Ougrim filius Miriel’ 1188 P
Sources 1
- A Dictionary of English Surnames
Attested across 4 languages in the etymology graph.
How Muriel is read(measured from records)
Muriel is one spelling over 3 language communities, and the dictionaries record it differently in 3 of them. Each row is what a source recorded for that language, beside the share of this name’s records the language holds. No single row is the name’s meaning.
- English49%
from Celtic Muirgel/Muirgheal ‘sea-bright’, also from residence near a pleasant hill; first attested Ougrim filius Miriel’ 1188 P
as a nameA Dictionary of English Surnames
- French35%
From Celtic elements meaning 'bright sea'; name-day not stated on page.
as a nameDictionnaire généalogique des prénoms
From Celtic roots, often linked to mor ‘sea’ + ael ‘bright’
as a nameLe grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)
Celtic name, often interpreted 'sea-bright'.
as a nameDictionnaire généalogique des prénoms
- Spanish6.1%
from the female personal name Muriel, of Breton origin. This was common in East Anglia during the Middle Ages, where it was introduced by Breton settlers following the Norman invasion.
as a nameDictionary of American Family Names
The share is ours — how much of this name’s records each language holds. The sense beside it is the source’s, quoted and credited, including where it names a gender. We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Muriel counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CN China | — | ≈110,000 est. | ≈1 in 13K | — | Muriel | 7 |
| FR France | #224 | ≈59,000 est. | ≈1 in 1.2K | 71K | Muriel | 363 |
| US United States | — | 15,477 | 1 in 21K | 15K | Muriel | 237 |
| GB United Kingdom | — | ≈12,000 est. | ≈1 in 5.3K | — | Muriel | 78 |
| BE Belgium | #199 | ≈8,000 est. | ≈1 in 1.5K | 5 | Muriel | 103 |
| CH Switzerland | #910 | ≈1,900 est. | ≈1 in 4.4K | 36 | Muriel | 63 |
| GY Guyana | — | 131 | 1 in 5.7K | 131 | — | — |
Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: INSEE — Fichier des prénoms (1900–2024); Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; Statbel — Prénoms nouveau-nés (newborns); BFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames); Guyana — Official List of Electors July 2025. Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Muriel is also recorded in one other lexicon, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In Ireland this is the English form of Muirgheal, ‘sea bright’. Muriel can also be traced to medieval Brittany and Normandy. It is probably Celtic; Yonge suggests that it comes from Greek and means ‘myrrh’, but this seems unlikely.
as a nameIrish first names
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Aileen Rigginb. 1906USnot in their usual nameAmerican diver, swimmer, Olympic gold medalist (1906–2002)
- Lilian Harveyb. 1906GBnot in their usual nameAnglo-German actress and singer
- Muriel Evansb. 1910USAmerican actress, radio personality (1910-2000)
- Muriel Humphrey Brownb. 1912USAmerican politician (1912–1998)
- Muriel Sparkb. 1918GBScottish novelist and writer (1918–2006)
- Beatrice Tinsleyb. 1941USnot in their usual nameNew Zealand astronomer (1941–1981)
- Muriel Robinb. 1955FRFrench actress and comedian
- Muriel Barberyb. 1969FRFrench writer
- Muriel Bowserb. 1972USMayor of the District of Columbia since 2015
- Muriel Baumeisterb. 1972ATAustrian-German actress
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
How to address them(machine-generated)
A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 90 sources across 49 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des prénoms (1900–2024) | 2012 | 71K | #3,342 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 15K | #1,861 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 223 | #1,861 |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des prénoms (1900–2024) | 1965 | 210 | #862 |
| GY Guyana | Guyana — Official List of Electors July 2025 | 2025 | 131 | #463 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 32 | — |
| BE Belgium | Statbel — Prénoms nouveau-nés (newborns) | 2003 | 5 | #1,234 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 1966 | 5 | — |
Reference works 6
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- What does the name Muriel mean, and where does it come from?
- from Celtic Muirgel/Muirgheal ‘sea-bright’, also from residence near a pleasant hill; first attested Ougrim filius Miriel’ 1188 P Recorded by A Dictionary of English Surnames.
- Is Muriel a male or female name?
- Muriel is a female name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.
- How do you pronounce Muriel?
- A machine transcription gives /mjʊəɹɪəl/ (IPA) for English.
- In which country does Muriel have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 112 thousand people named Muriel in China, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled muriel.
- What are other forms of the name Muriel?
- In the etymology graph, Merle, Murielle and Meryl are forms of the same name in other languages.
- How common is the name Muriel?
- In the United States, the national register counted 15,477 people named Muriel in 2020, about 1 in 21 thousand residents.
- How common is Muriel compared with other names?
- In Belgium, Muriel is the 199th most common given name of 59,589 given names recorded there.
What do you want to know about Muriel?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/murielThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Muriel” — the 199th most common given name in Belgium. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.