Muriel
Girl nameMuriel has been given to 55,646 babies in the U.S. since 1880. It peaked in 1922.
Meaning & origin /ˈmjʊəɹɪ.əl/
Anglicized form of Scottish Gaelic Muireall, from muir (“sea”), from Old Irish muir, from Proto-Celtic *mori, from Proto-Indo-European *móri; + geal (“white, bright”), from Old Irish gel, from Proto-Celtic *gelos (“yellow, white”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰelh₃- (“green, yellow”).
Origin: Scottish Gaelic
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Popularity over time births per year, 1880–2025
Total babies
55,646
Peak year
1922 (2,407 babies)
Rank in 2025
Below top 1000
First recorded
1880
10-year trend
▲ +14%
Gender split
99% girls / 1% boys
Famous people named Muriel
Muriel Spark
Scottish novelist and writer (1918–2006)
Muriel Barbery
French writer
Muriel Bowser
Mayor of the District of Columbia since 2015
Lilian Harvey
Anglo-German actress and singer
Notability data from Wikidata (CC0).
Names with a similar vibe
Same primary gender, peaked around the same years, and roughly as common as Muriel.
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