Merlin
given name · Latin script
Meaning: from OFr Merlin, from Welsh Myrddhin; first attested Ralph filius Merlin 1202 FFL
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
/mɝlɪn/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Merlin is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Cameroon than in any other country.
- PHPhilippines≈1 in 24K(inferred from the name graph)
- USUnited States1 in 38K
- GBUnited Kingdom≈1 in 46K
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.
- Cameroon (inferred from the name graph)
- Sources
- 342 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 1.8K (inferred from the name graph)
≈15,000 people, est.
Highest-authority source
Cameroon, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
- OFrMerlin(measured from records)
- WelshMyrddhin(measured from records)
from OFr Merlin, from Welsh Myrddhin; first attested Ralph filius Merlin 1202 FFL
Sources 1
- A Dictionary of English Surnames
Attested in 1 language in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Merlin 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 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CM Cameroon | #300 | ≈15,000 est. | ≈1 in 1.8K | — | Merlin | 18 |
| US United States | — | 8,662 | 1 in 38K | 6.7K | Merlin | 342 |
| PH Philippines | — | ≈4,500 est. | ≈1 in 24K | — | Merlin | 47 |
| FR France | — | ≈1,600 est. | ≈1 in 43K | 2.5K | — | 4 |
| GB United Kingdom | — | ≈1,400 est. | ≈1 in 46K | — | Merlin | 122 |
| CH Switzerland | — | ≈560 est. | ≈1 in 15K | 106 | — | 28 |
| BE Belgium | — | ≈500 est. | ≈1 in 23K | 374 | — | 31 |
| CR Costa Rica | — | 476 | 1 in 11K | 476 | — | — |
| SG Singapore | — | ≈310 est. | ≈1 in 20K | — | Merlin | 22 |
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 — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; INSEE — Fichier des prénoms (1900–2024); TSE — electoral roll (padrón) names; Familienaam.be — Belgian family-name frequency (population register); BFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames). 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)
Merlin 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 French, From the Arthurian wizard name; possibly Welsh Myrddin
as a nameLe grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)
from the Old French personal name Merlin, Latin Merlinus was derived from the Welsh personal name Myrddin. Merlinus was a Latinized form of Myrddin devised by Geoffrey of Monmouth and popularized in the Arthurian romances.
as a nameDictionary of American Family Names
metronymic from the Yiddish female personal name Merle, a pet form of Miryam (see Mirkin).
as a nameDictionary of American Family Names
In French, splitting maul: an axe with a long handle, the blade of which is coupled with a broad side that can be used as a sledgehammer
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In English, A small falcon, Falco columbarius, that breeds in northern North America, Europe, and Asia.
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)
- Frances Power Cobbeb. 1822IEnot in their usual nameIrish writer, philosopher, social reformer, anti-vivisection activist and leading suffragist (1822-1904)
- Merlin Stoneb. 1931USAmerican author, sculptor, and professor of art and art history
- Merlin Donaldb. 1939CACanadian psychologist
- Merlin Olsenb. 1940USAmerican football player and actor (1940-2010)
- Merlin Hollandb. 1945GBBritish writer
- Merlin Millerb. 1956USAmerican film director, producer and writer
- Merlin Malinowskib. 1958CACanadian ice hockey player
- Merlin Polzinb. 1990DEGerman football manager
- Merlin Tandjigorab. 1990GAGabonese footballer
- Merlin Hummelb. 2002DEGerman hammer thrower
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)
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 93 sources across 45 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 1.5K | #18,278 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 1.3K | #20,135 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 1.2K | #21,230 |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1991 | 1.1K | — |
| BE Belgium | Familienaam.be — Belgian family-name frequency (population register) | 2008 | 374 | #4,243 |
| BE Belgium | Statbel — Noms de famille (family names) | — | 337 | #4,921 |
| CH Switzerland | BFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames) | 2024 | 106 | #10,554 |
Reference works 9
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
- 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
- jeantosti.com — Dictionnaire des noms de famille de France et d'ailleurs (Jean Tosti)
- Cognomix.it (Nomix s.r.l.) — Italian surname origin dictionary
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 Merlin mean, and where does it come from?
- from OFr Merlin, from Welsh Myrddhin; first attested Ralph filius Merlin 1202 FFL Recorded by A Dictionary of English Surnames.
- Is Merlin a male or female name?
- Merlin is recorded for both men and women. We don't publish a percentage split: a record's gender belongs to the person and is attached to every given name on that record, so names in cultures where a name string also carries a parent's or spouse's given name pick up large cross-gender counts.
- How common is the name Merlin?
- In the United States, the national register counted 8,662 people named Merlin in 2020, about 1 in 38 thousand residents.
- How common is Merlin compared with other names?
- In Cameroon, Merlin is the 300th most common given name of 9,064 given names recorded there.
- What are other forms of the name Merlin?
- In the etymology graph, Merlyn and Myrddin are forms of the same name in other languages.
- In which country does Merlin have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 15 thousand people named Merlin in Cameroon, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled merlin.
- How do you pronounce Merlin?
- A machine transcription gives /mɝlɪn/ (IPA) for English.
What do you want to know about Merlin?
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/merlinThe 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, “Merlin” — the 300th most common given name in Cameroon. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.