The Merli Last Name

Merli belongs to the Merlo family of names, which has Italian roots. Taken at its root, Merli points to “a nickname from merlo, "blackbird"”.

Arms associated with the name

A coat of arms belongs to a particular family line rather than to everyone named Merli, so the heraldry linked to Merlo is a starting point, not an automatic right.

Merli and Merlo

The change of ending between Merlo and Merli reflects the Italian habit of naming a family in the plural or the singular.

Spain's INE counts 63 residents with Merli as first surname and 53 with it as second. 318 Americans were listed as Merli in the 2010 census. That puts it among the top 100,000 US surnames. For the full story, order the Merli surname pack.