Mercy
Top 1000
About Mercy
The quality of mercy makes this lovely Puritan virtue name a quiet favorite today. Although it was most popular in the late nineteenth century, Mercy is on its way to a comeback -- it rose 143 spots between 2012 and 2013, making it one of the year's fastest-rising names. Right now, it's still stylish and distinctive, a rare and wonderful combination.
Mercy is one of the characters with allegorical names in John Bunyan's A Pilgrim's Progress, and Mercy Pecksniff appears in Dickens's novel Martin Chuzzlewit with the nickname Merry. Mercy Lewis, in Arthur Miller's play The Crucible, was based on a real-life person, a witness at the Salem witch trials. Another historic Mercy is Mercy Warren, Revolutionary period patriot and writer of plays, books and poetry.
Comic/sidekick Andy Richter, when he named his daughter Mercy, joked, "Just in case Puritanism comes back, we'll be ready with a real Puritan name"; Madonna renamed her Malawi-born daughter Mercy James. As a word name and modern virtue name, it's one of the most fashionable English names for girls.
As of October 2026, Mercy ranked #867 in US births in 2025 SSA, peaked at #611 in 1881, Nameberry popularity #749.
Editor's take: The name Mercy is a girl's name of English origin meaning "compassion".
Popularity & trends
Data table
| Year | US rank | Births | Per million |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | #935 | 289 | 161.8 |
| 2015 | #1,013 | 265 | 148.5 |
| 2016 | #792 | 360 | 203.2 |
| 2017 | #758 | 367 | 212.6 |
| 2018 | #726 | 392 | 230.4 |
| 2019 | #662 | 439 | 261.6 |
| 2020 | #801 | 339 | 209.7 |
| 2021 | #781 | 363 | 221.2 |
| 2022 | #797 | 355 | 216.4 |
| 2023 | #834 | 329 | 205 |
| 2024 | #849 | 318 | 196.3 |
| 2025 | #867 | 313 | 194.7 |
World rankings
Similar names
These 20 names were selected by our users looking for other names like Mercy.
- Freddy
- Honor
- Fay
- Glinda
- Patience
- Tristin
- Kitty
- Trixie
- Valentine
- Liberty
- Roxanne
- Imeda
- Rita
- Charity
- Ginger
- Uma
- Portia
- Temperance
- Kiki
- Honour
Mercy on lists
Famous Mercys
- Mercy Otis Warren
American writer and propagandist of the American Revolution
- Mercy Fiennes
Tiffin, English actress
- Mercy Aigbe Gentry
Nigerian actress
- Mercy Johnson
Nigerian actress
- Mercy Akide
Nigerian footballer
- Mercy Lewis
figure in the Salem witch trials; portrayed in Arthur Miller's "The Crucible"
- Mercy Brown
American girl exhumed on suspicion of being a vampire in 1892
- Mercy Josephine Richter (b. 2005)
daughter of comedian Andy Richter
- Chifundo "Mercy" James (b. 2006)
daughter of Madonna
- Mercy Diaz (b. 2010)
daughter of comedian Joey Diaz
- Mercy Morgan (b. 2019)
dauhgter of actress Emily Rose
Mercy in pop culture
- Mercy Merrick
character in The New Magdalen (1873) by Wilkie Collins
- Mercy Pecksniff
character in "Martin Chuzzlewit"
- Mercy
character in "A Pilgrim's Progress"
- Mercy Lewis
character in "The Crucible"
- Mercy Wood
character in "The Witch of Blackbird Pond"
- Mercy
intended name of Adrian & Ben's daughter ("The Secret Life of an American Teenager") until Adrian later miscarried
- Mercy Watson
pig character in children's book series by Kate DiCamillo
- Mercy
minor character in "Orange is the New Black" (Big Boo's Ex)
- Mercy Graves
bodyguard and assistant to Lex Luthor in DC Comics
- Mercy
a Swiss doctor/healer character in the video game Overwatch, otherwise known as Angela Ziegler
- Mercy
baby on TV's "7th Heaven"
- Mercy
character in the movie The Witch (2016)
- Mercy Carter
character in "The Ransom of Mercy Carter"
- Mercy Thompson
Hauptman, main character in Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs
- Mercy
character in film "The Warriors"