Explore the Family Name Merk

The meaning of Merk

1. German: variant of Merck. 2. Dutch (Van der Merk): variant of Mark 2. Some characteristic forenames: German Erhard, Gerhart, Guenther, Inge, Nikolaus, Otto.

Dictionary of American Family Names, 2nd edition, © Oxford University Press, 2022.

How common is the last name Merk in the United States?

According to data from the Decennial U.S. Census, the surname Merk experienced a shift in popularity between 2000 and 2010. In 2000, this surname ranked at 21,156; however, by 2010, it had dropped to 23,054 reflecting a decrease of approximately 8.97 percent. The number of individuals carrying the Merk surname also diminished over this timespan with 1,156 people recorded in 2000 and 1,109 in 2010, marking a decline of about 4.07 percent. The proportion per 100,000 people similarly fell by 11.63 percent during these years.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#21,156	#23,054	-8.97%
Count	1,156	1,109	-4.07%
Proportion per 100k	0.43	0.38	-11.63%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Merk

In terms of ethnicity, the data from the Decennial U.S. Census shows some changes among individuals with the Merk surname between 2000 and 2010. The percentage of those identifying as White remained virtually unchanged, rising slightly from 96.19 percent in 2000 to 96.21 percent in 2010. The proportion of those who identified as Hispanic increased by 38.46 percent, while the percentage of those claiming two or more races decreased by 33.06 percent. During this period, there was no change in the proportion of people identifying as Asian/Pacific Islander or American Indian and Alaskan Native. Surprisingly, the census reported no individuals with the Merk surname identifying as Black in 2010, down from 0.78 percent in 2000.

	2000	2010	Change
White	96.19%	96.21%	0.02%
Hispanic	1.3%	1.8%	38.46%
Two or More Races	1.21%	0.81%	-33.06%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	0.45%	0%
Black	0.78%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%