Merrick
A surname with more than one likely source, most often linked to the Welsh personal name Meurig or to a place-name such as Marrick in Yorkshire.
The #4,111 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 35,780 Americans shares it.
Etymology
English surname scholars have long given Merrick more than one possible origin. One traditional explanation links it to the Welsh personal name Meurig, Meiric, or Meurig, which was later anglicized in forms such as Merrick, Merricks, and Merrix. Another line of explanation connects it with the English place-name Marrick in Yorkshire, making it a locational surname for someone from that area. Older sources also suggest a separate association with Almeric, but that is less commonly treated as the main explanation today.
History
The surname appears in medieval and early modern records in several overlapping spellings, which is why its origin is not always easy to pin down for a given family. In Wales and border counties, it may reflect the old Welsh personal name; in northern England, it may instead point to a Yorkshire place-name. Because the name developed in more than one way, different Merrick families may not share the same root.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Older surname dictionaries explicitly note that Merrick could be a corruption of Meyrick, while other entries separately connect it to Marrick in Yorkshire—evidence that the name’s story is genuinely mixed.
From the historical record
“the dim. sufi. -et] MERRICK, an aphseresized form of Almeric, q.v. MERRICKS, Merrick's (Son) :v. Merrick. MERRIDEW, prob. for the French M^re de Dieu, from dwelling by an effigy of the ' Mother of God.' Cp. Pardew for the Fr. Pardieu. Hardly for Meredith.”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)