Head to head · Girls' names
Magnolia vs Margaret
#124 vs #112 in 2025
Margaret is a whisker ahead (#112 vs #124 in 2025), but the curves point different ways: Margaret is holding its place on the charts, Magnolia is climbing the charts fast. On momentum, Magnolia has the edge.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
The tale of the tape
On the charts, Margaret leads 4 measures of 6; Magnolia leads 1.
Ranks, counts and years are measured in the official US birth record; the classroom and living figures are estimates computed from it. The dot marks the side each measure favours on the charts — more common, not better.
What the records say
146 years of US births, drawn on one scale
Two curves, one scale
Who owned which decade
- 1880s: Magnolia #688, Margaret #5 — Margaret higher
- 1890s: Magnolia #682, Margaret #4 — Margaret higher
- 1900s: Magnolia #513, Margaret #4 — Margaret higher
- 1910s: Magnolia #549, Margaret #4 — Margaret higher
- 1920s: Magnolia #676, Margaret #5 — Margaret higher
- 1930s: Magnolia #856, Margaret #8 — Margaret higher
- 1940s: Magnolia #1182, Margaret #14 — Margaret higher
- 1950s: Magnolia #2081, Margaret #24 — Margaret higher
- 1960s: Magnolia #3431, Margaret #52 — Margaret higher
- 1970s: Magnolia #4393, Margaret #98 — Margaret higher
- 1980s: Magnolia #5355, Margaret #95 — Margaret higher
- 1990s: Magnolia #4121, Margaret #106 — Margaret higher
- 2000s: Magnolia #2140, Margaret #147 — Margaret higher
- 2010s: Magnolia #762, Margaret #157 — Margaret higher
- 2020s: Magnolia #146, Margaret #124 — Margaret higher
Margaret stood higher in every recorded decade — 15 of 15.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Magnolia | Margaret |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | #688 | #5 |
| 1890s | #682 | #4 |
| 1900s | #513 | #4 |
| 1910s | #549 | #4 |
| 1920s | #676 | #5 |
| 1930s | #856 | #8 |
| 1940s | #1182 | #14 |
| 1950s | #2081 | #24 |
| 1960s | #3431 | #52 |
| 1970s | #4393 | #98 |
| 1980s | #5355 | #95 |
| 1990s | #4121 | #106 |
| 2000s | #2140 | #147 |
| 2010s | #762 | #157 |
| 2020s | #146 | #124 |
Average national rank across each decade. A dash means the name sat outside the recorded top of that decade.
The names themselves
Meaning, roots, sound and the people who carried each
Where each name comes from
Magnolia
The magnolia flower; the tree was named after the botanist Magnol
The plant genus was Latinized from the surname of Pierre Magnol, a French botanist of the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries who directed the botanical garden at Montpellier. The surname's own origin is not established, so the meaning stops honestly at the flower.
Magnol (French surname) → Magnolia (Latin genus name) → Magnolia (English word for the tree) → Magnolia (given name)
How it traveled
The word came before the name. European botanists Latinized Magnol's surname into Magnolia for the genus, and Linnaeus's plant catalog of 1753 fixed it in scientific use.
Margaret
pearl
The Greek margarites, a pearl, which the language took from further east along the trade routes that brought the pearls themselves.
margarites → Margarita → Margaret
How it traveled
Scotland is where the name became royal. Margaret arrived there as an Anglo-Saxon princess raised in Hungarian exile, married Malcolm the Third, and spent her life reorganising the court and the Scottish church around her; she was canonized, her descendants ruled for centuries, and every Scottish family with any pretension named daughters after her.
Where a reading is contested the note says so — this page does not turn a guess into a fact. The chain is each name's recorded forms, oldest first; the story is its opening, told in full on the name's own page.
Out loud, and in short
Magnolia
mag-NOH-lee-uh
Four syllables, stress on the second. Some speakers compress the ending to mag-NOHL-yuh in quick speech. Because the tree carries the same word, almost every American English speaker says it right on sight.
- Maggie — The most common short form; also a long-established nickname for Margaret and a given name in its own right.
- Nola — Taken from the middle of the name; stands alone as a given name too, with its own record of use.
- Mags — Informal, more often used among friends and siblings than by adults.
- Lia — Drawn from the ending; used independently as a name in Italian and German.
- Also Mag, Noli.
Margaret
MAR-gruht
Three syllables written, two or three said depending on the speaker; most English speakers compress the middle. French gives four, mar-guh-REET, and Spanish four as well.
- Maggie — The most common everyday form in Britain and America alike; it stands alone as a given name.
- Peggy — An older form arrived at by rhyme rather than by cutting, which is why it looks unrelated.
- Meg — The short cut from the front; a standing name of its own.
- Madge — An older informal form, now mostly carried by women of an earlier generation.
- Also Greta, Rita.
One short form, two names
- Magnolia and Margaret both shorten to Maggie.
Short forms as recorded on each name’s own page. This is here so it is a decision rather than a discovery.
Who has carried each name
Magnolia
No documented entry for Magnolia yet.
Margaret
Margaret Thatcher (b. 1925) — Britain's first female prime minister, the "Iron Lady"
Margaret Atwood (b. 1939) — Wrote The Handmaid's Tale
Margaret Mitchell (b. 1900) — Wrote Gone with the Wind
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
Is it right for you
The differences that decide it, laid out by what you want
Choose by what you want
Choose Magnolia if you want…
- a name fewer children share#124 in 2025 — magnolia will almost certainly be the only one in school
- a name on the way upup 52 places on the charts in five years
- a name that feels very nowMagnolia is climbing the charts fast
Choose Margaret if you want…
- a name most people already know#112 in 2025, 2,436 babies that year
- a name holding steadyMargaret is holding its place on the charts
- a name that ages quietlyan estimated 12% chance of feeling dated by 2040, against 52% for Magnolia
Each line is a measured difference between the two names — a rank, a count, a recorded form — never a judgement of either. Save the one that answers your question; it lands on your shortlist.
The trade-offs, name by name
Magnolia
Strengths
- Everyone already knows the spelling from the tree, so it is written correctly without explanation.
To consider
- The Southern association is strong — the blossom is a regional emblem and the name is most used in the South and Southwest. Lovely if that resonates; worth knowing if it doesn't.
- Maggie, the readiest short form, belongs to Margaret as well, so a Maggie will occasionally be assumed to be a Margaret.
- Four syllables ask for a shortish surname and a shortish middle name if you want the whole thing to say easily.
Margaret
Strengths
- It has a form in essentially every European language, so it travels anywhere without translation.
- It carries more established short forms than any other English name, in every register from formal to affectionate.
- The meaning is settled, concrete and pleasant, and easy to explain to a child.
To consider
- Several very famous women share it, and each generation attaches to a different one.
- The short forms are so unlike the name that a child may end up called something a stranger would never connect to it.
- The spelling is recorded for a small number of boys, though it reads overwhelmingly as a girl's name.
Documented properties of each name — how it spells, travels and shortens — not opinions about the child.
How each is likely to age
Magnolia
52%chance Magnolia feels dated by 2040
Magnolia is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
Margaret
12%chance Margaret feels dated by 2040
Margaret has held the top-100 across 11 different decades — it has never depended on fashion, and names like that read the same at any age.
A reading of where each name sits on the long naming cycle — computed, not measured, and explained on the data page.
With your last name
Say both in full. The notes are facts about letters and sound — a rhyme, a shared initial, the monogram — not a verdict on either name.
Type a last name to hear Magnolia and Margaret in full.
Weighing the whole shortlist? Run the full comparison — up to eight names with your last name, initials, classroom projections and a printable report.
Decide together
Nobody names a baby alone
Still torn between Magnolia and Margaret?
Put both to the vote.
One link to your partner, your parents, your sister. Each of them gets the two names, a one-tap answer and room to say why — and every reply lands in one place.
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More than two in the running? Settle it with a bracket or run the full comparison with your last name.
More head-to-heads
Same measures, different pair. Sixty more are dealt daily in the arena.
Lists that carry both names
Every list here names both Magnolia and Margaret — the same style, ranked by the same records.
Magnolia or Margaret — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Magnolia or Margaret?
- Margaret, in 2025: Margaret ranked #112 with 2,436 babies; Magnolia ranked #124 with 2,233 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Magnolia or Margaret?
- Magnolia. Over the last five years Magnolia moved up 52 places; Margaret moved up 14 places.
- Which is the older name, Magnolia or Margaret?
- The US record cannot say: both were already in use when it began in 1880.
- How many people are named Magnolia and Margaret?
- About 19,500 people named Magnolia are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 504,000 people named Margaret are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Do Magnolia and Margaret share a nickname?
- Yes — both shorten to Maggie, so in a house with both names the short form would not say which child is meant.
US figures from the Social Security Administration, 1880–2025. Votes are battle voters on this site, not the birth record. Data & methodology
Keep playing
Sixty more head-to-heads are dealt in the arena every day — or line up Magnolia, Margaret and the rest of your shortlist with your last name in one printable report.
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