Myrtle is from the Greek myrtos — the evergreen shrub sacred to Aphrodite, goddess of love; bridal myrtle wreaths feature in classical and medieval wedding traditions. A top-50 US baby name from 1880 to 1910, peaking at #22 in 1892. Myrtle Wilson — character in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby (1925); George Wilson's wife and Tom Buchanan's mistress; played by Isla Fisher in Baz Luhrmann's 2013 adaptation; her death scene in the Valley of Ashes is one of the most-analyzed passages in American literature, anchoring the novel's critique of the American Dream. Myrtle Beach, South Carolina — one of the most-visited US tourist destinations (17+ million visitors annually); named for the wax myrtle trees that grow along the Grand Strand. Myrtle Gonzalez (1891-1918) — early Hollywood silent-film star; widely cited as one of the first Latina leading ladies in American cinema; died in the 1918 flu pandemic at age 27. Myrtle Reed (1874-1911) — American author; Lavender and Old Lace (1902) was a bestseller. Moaning Myrtle — the bathroom-haunting ghost of Hogwarts in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, played by Shirley Henderson in Chamber of Secrets (2002) and Goblet of Fire (2005). Myrtle Corbin (1868-1928) — "Four-Legged Girl from Texas," famous 19th-century sideshow performer.
Featured throughout American literature and Aphrodite's mythology.
Myrtle does not currently appear in the US Social Security Administration's top 1,000 girls' names, so we don't publish a US rank or birth count for it. That says nothing about the name's standing elsewhere in the world — only that it sits outside the ranked US data we rely on.
In Pythagorean numerology the letters of Myrtle reduce to 3, The Communicator. This is a traditional interpretive system, not a factual claim about the name.