Myrtle: Meaning of Baby Name Myrtle

About the Name Myrtle

Myrtle takes its name directly from the myrtle plant — Myrtus communis — a fragrant Mediterranean shrub whose branches were sacred in ancient Greek and Roman tradition, associated with Aphrodite and Venus as symbols of love, fertility, and immortality. Botanical names enjoyed a strong vogue in the English-speaking world during the Victorian era, when flowers and plants were assigned rich symbolic meanings in the language of flowers (floriography), and Myrtle joined Rose, Violet, Lily, and Ivy as names drawn from that natural vocabulary. The name carries no separate etymological meaning beyond the plant itself.

Myrtle's American run was concentrated in the late Victorian and Gilded Age eras. It appears in the US Social Security top-1000 from 1880, the earliest year tracked, and peaked in 1894 at rank #27. Its total top-1000 births across the tracked run exceed 100,000. The name remained in the top-1000 through 1925, when it appeared at rank #95 with nearly 3,000 births — a long, graceful arc that mirrors the broader rise and fall of the Victorian botanical-name fashion. The years just before its final exit still show thousands of annual births, pointing to a name that faded gradually rather than collapsed suddenly.

In the contemporary landscape, Myrtle sits in the deep-vintage tier, less revived than Rose or Violet but carrying the same late-19th-century botanical warmth. Its association with the character Moaning Myrtle in the Harry Potter series has kept it culturally visible for younger generations. Recorded variants include Mert and Mertice.

Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.

Quick Facts About Myrtle

1,029

Greek baby names in our dictionary

545

Greek female names

379

6-letter M-names in our dictionary

777

M-female names total

1880–1925

years of US SSA records (46 total)

100,503

total US births named Myrtle (all years)

US Popularity History (1880–1925)

↘️ Falling: Myrtle dropped 27 places in the US girls ranking over the last 5 years (#68 in 1920 → #95 in 1925).

Annual US births named Myrtle by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 1918 with 4,076 girls named Myrtle (girl rank #62 that year).

Where it stands today: in 1925, ranked #95 for girls (2,980 US births). That's 33 places below its 1918 peak.

Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.

Where in the US Is Myrtle Most Popular?

Average girl-name rank within each state across 1933–1942 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's girls-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Myrtle the strongest states are North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky.

Strongest girls-name states

#	State	Avg rank	Births
1	North Carolina	#80	895
2	Tennessee	#81	223
3	Kentucky	#83	597
4	Louisiana	#87	190
5	West Virginia	#90	190
6	Virginia	#91	500
7	South Carolina	#92	346
8	Alabama	#99	215

Weakest girls-name states

#	State	Avg rank	Births
1	Alabama	#99	215
2	South Carolina	#92	346
3	Virginia	#91	500
4	West Virginia	#90	190
5	Louisiana	#87	190
6	Kentucky	#83	597
7	Tennessee	#81	223
8	North Carolina	#80	895

Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 1933–1942. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Myrtle in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.

Variant Forms

Name	Meaning	Gender	Origin
Mert	Lover Of Silence	Female	Egyptian
Mertice	Famous	Female	English

Looking for names like Myrtle?

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Compare Myrtle to Other Popular Names

Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Myrtle against today's most popular girls-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).

Myrtle vs Olivia 210,124 births since 2014

Myrtle vs Emma 202,477 births since 2014

Myrtle vs Sophia 169,709 births since 2014

Myrtle vs Isabella 158,431 births since 2014

Myrtle vs Ava 157,356 births since 2014

Myrtle vs Charlotte 151,872 births since 2014

Myrtle vs Mia 149,779 births since 2014

Myrtle vs Amelia 142,728 births since 2014

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