Robert C. Merton (b. July 31, 1944, New York, N.Y., U.S.), American economist and leading scholar in the field of finance and options pricing. Merton shared the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1997 with Myron S. Scholes, whose option valuation model, the Black-Scholes formula (developed with economist Fischer Black), provided the foundation for much of Merton's work. It is somewhat unfair to Merton that the resulting formula has ever since been known as Black-Scholes. Merton used his background in mathematics to generalise the formula by relaxing certain restrictions and assumptions set by Black and Scholes, such as the rather unlikely assumption that the stock will pay no dividends.

United States sociologist (1910-2003)

The historic parish of Merton contributed its name to the London Borough of Merton, although Merton itself is no longer a clearly defined area within the borough.

United States religious and writer (1915-1968)