Explore the Family Name Merkley

The meaning of Merkley

Probably an Americanized form of German Merkle.

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

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

Based on the Decennial U.S. Census data, the surname Merkley showed a slight increase in popularity between 2000 and 2010. The rank of this surname improved from 15752 in 2000 to 15370 in 2010, marking a change of 2.43%. In terms of count, there was a growth of approximately 12.17%, with the number of individuals bearing this surname increasing from 1701 in 2000 to 1908 in 2010. The proportion of people named Merkley per 100,000 also saw a minor increase, moving up by 3.17% from 0.63 in 2000 to 0.65 in 2010.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#15,752	#15,370	2.43%
Count	1,701	1,908	12.17%
Proportion per 100k	0.63	0.65	3.17%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Merkley

When considering the ethnic identity aligned with the surname Merkley, it's clear that changes occurred between 2000 and 2010 according to Decennial U.S. Census data. The majority of individuals with this surname identified as White, although their percentage slightly dropped by 1.84% from 96.59% in 2000 to 94.81% in 2010. Those identifying as Hispanic increased notably by 60.59%, moving from 1.70% in 2000 to 2.73% in 2010. There was also an observed growth within those identifying with Two or more races, which increased by 134.04% from 0.47% in 2000 to 1.10% in 2010. Meanwhile, the Asian/Pacific Islander category showed new representation in 2010 with 0.89%, while Black representation was no longer present. American Indian and Alaskan Native representation remained at zero for both years.

	2000	2010	Change
White	96.59%	94.81%	-1.84%
Hispanic	1.7%	2.73%	60.59%
Two or More Races	0.47%	1.1%	134.04%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	0.89%	0%
Black	0.59%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%