Mercer
surname · Latin script
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
Mercer is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in China than in any other country. Recorded meaning: 'trader, dealer in textiles'; from Middle English, from Old French mercier.
- CACanada≈1 in 6.3K(inferred from the name graph)
- GBUnited Kingdom≈1 in 6.4K
- NZNew Zealand≈1 in 6.5K
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
- 463 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 6.3K (inferred from the name graph)
≈150,000 people, est.
Highest-authority source
Canada, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
- MiddleEnglish(measured from records)
- Old Frenchmercier(measured from records)
'trader, dealer in textiles'; from Middle English, from Old French mercier.
Sources 1
- Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history]
Where in the world(measured from records)
Mercer 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 | — | ≈150,000 est. | ≈1 in 9.4K | — | Mercer | 14 |
| US United States | #878 | 34,431 | 1 in 9.7K | 34K | Mercer | 463 |
| GB United Kingdom | #617 | ≈10,000 est. | ≈1 in 6.4K | listed | Mercer | 260 |
| CA Canada | #569 | ≈6,000 est. | ≈1 in 6.3K | 1 | Mercer | 180 |
| EG Egypt | — | ≈3,700 est. | ≈1 in 28K | — | Mercer | 9 |
| AU Australia | #784 | ≈3,200 est. | ≈1 in 7.8K | 1 | Mercer | 155 |
| IE Ireland | #668 | ≈770 est. | ≈1 in 6.7K | — | Mercer | 41 |
| NZ New Zealand | #601 | ≈750 est. | ≈1 in 6.5K | — | Mercer | 92 |
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: Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010; the hanks-dictionary-surnames-1988 register; Alberta Open Government — Frequency and Ranking of Baby Names by Year and Gender; SA BDM — Popular baby names South Australia (1944–present). 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)
Mercer is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In English, from Old French mercier, merchier ‘merchant’; first attested Gamel mercer 1168 P (L)
as a nameA Dictionary of English Surnames
occupational name for a trader, from Old French mercier. Late Latin mercarius (an agent derivative of merx, genitive mercis, ‘merchandise’). In Middle Fnglish the term was applied particularly to someone who dealt in textiles, especially the more costly and luxurious fabrics such as silks, satin, and velvet.
as a nameDictionary of American Family Names
In English, mercier (LL mercdrius, an agent deriv. of merx, gen. mercis, merchandise; cf. Marchant, Mercado). The term was applied in ME particularly to one who dealt in textile fab¬ rics, especially the more costly and luxurious fabrics such as silks, satin, and velvet. Vars.: Mercier; Merchier (from the Norman form); Marker.
as a nameThe Oxford Names Companion - The definitive guide to Surnames, First Names, and Place Names of the British Isles
Transferred use of the surname, in origin an occupational name for a trader (Old French mercier, from Late Latin
as a nameA concise dictionary of first names
In English, A merchant dealing in fabrics and textiles, especially silks and other fine cloths.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
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)
- John Francis Mercerb. 1759USAmerican politician (1759-1821)
- Beryl Mercerb. 1882USactress (1882–1939)
- Johnny Mercerb. 1909USAmerican lyricist, songwriter, singer and record executive (1909–1976)
- Jack Mercerb. 1910USAmerican voice actor (1910–1984)
- Joseph Mercerb. 1914GBEnglish footballer and manager (1914-1990)
- Mae Mercerb. 1932USAmerican blues singer and actress (1932-2008)
- Sam Mercerb. 1954USAmerican film producer
- Johnny Mercerb. 1981GBBritish Conservative party politician (born 1981)
- Matthew Mercerb. 1982USAmerican actor
- Tommy Mercerb. 1985USAmerican professional wrestler, promoter
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).
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 43 sources across 21 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 34K | #1,016 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 34K | #949 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 33K | #1,051 |
| GB United Kingdom | A Dictionary of Surnames (Hanks & Hodges, 1988) | — | — | — |
| US United States | wru Name Dictionary — US surnames, Census 2010 subset (Khanna et al.) | — | — | — |
Reference works 6
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- Rymut, Słownik nazwisk współcześnie w Polsce używanych (10 vols, IJP PAN, Kraków 1992–1994) — every Polish surname in the PESEL register at the end of 1990, with bearer counts nationally and per voivodeship1990
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 Mercer mean, and where does it come from?
- 'trader, dealer in textiles'; from Middle English, from Old French mercier. Recorded by Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history].
- In which country does Mercer have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 148 thousand people named Mercer in China, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled mercer.
- How common is the name Mercer?
- In the United States, the national register counted 34,431 people named Mercer in 2010, about 1 in 9.7 thousand residents.
- How common is Mercer compared with other names?
- In Canada, Mercer is the 569th most common surname of 699,524 surnames recorded there.
What do you want to know about Mercer?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/mercerThe same payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. Rate-limited for casual use; a free API key gives 1,000 requests a day, and bulk access is licensed separately.
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, “Mercer” — the 569th most common surname in Canada. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.