Merlin

Meaning of Merlin

Merlin—born of the misty Welsh name Myrddin yet gilded by the Latin echo of merula, “little songbird,” and the swift merlin falcon—carries on his (or her!) cloak a whole constellation of tales: the moonlit counsel of King Arthur’s enchanter, the feather-swift grace of a hunting bird, and the evergreen whisper of ancient forests where druids once murmured ave, natura. He drifts through history like incense, appearing first in the medieval Vita Merlini, then in Tennyson’s rich versos, and now, with a playful wink, on modern birth certificates—about seventy little Merlins a year in the United States, each one a spark in the long continuum of magic lovers that stretches unbroken from Camelot to suburbia. Parents choose the name for the promise it sings: wisdom without wrinkles, wonder without wands, and a hint of gentle mischief (after all, who better than a baby magician to make sleep disappear?). Unsexed by ancient legend and unbound by time, Merlin is a wand-bright invitation to believe that every cradle may yet rock beneath its own private star.