Mearl

Where Mearl comes from

Mearl hasn't made it into the dictionaries we draw on, and nobody well known enough for an encyclopedia has carried it yet — so for now its story is the one the SSA record tells. Names that spell a familiar sound a new way often live here for a while before anyone writes them down.

Along the way
  1. 1894
    First appearance
    #857 among boys, 7 babies — the first year at least five got the name.
  2. 1909
    Peak, #653
    17 babies named Mearl — more than any year before or since.
  3. 1911
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #1,740.
  4. 1912
    Mostly boys from here
    Until now more girls than boys got the name; from this year it's the other way round, and has stayed that way.
In the dictionary

No dictionary entry for this spelling — which is its own kind of rare.

Namesakes

No widely known Mearl turns up in the encyclopedias yet — the name is still all theirs to make famous.

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.