Head to head · Girls' names
Margaret vs Mary
#112 vs #125 in 2025 · both holding its place on the charts
Margaret is a whisker ahead (#112 vs #125 in 2025) and both are holding its place on the charts. The records will not split these two — sound, story and your own last name will.
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 3 measures of 6; Mary leads 2.
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: Margaret #5, Mary #1 — Mary higher
- 1890s: Margaret #4, Mary #1 — Mary higher
- 1900s: Margaret #4, Mary #1 — Mary higher
- 1910s: Margaret #4, Mary #1 — Mary higher
- 1920s: Margaret #5, Mary #1 — Mary higher
- 1930s: Margaret #8, Mary #1 — Mary higher
- 1940s: Margaret #14, Mary #1 — Mary higher
- 1950s: Margaret #24, Mary #1 — Mary higher
- 1960s: Margaret #52, Mary #3 — Mary higher
- 1970s: Margaret #98, Mary #17 — Mary higher
- 1980s: Margaret #95, Mary #33 — Mary higher
- 1990s: Margaret #106, Mary #40 — Mary higher
- 2000s: Margaret #147, Mary #71 — Mary higher
- 2010s: Margaret #157, Mary #121 — Mary higher
- 2020s: Margaret #124, Mary #130 — Margaret higher
Mary stood higher in 14 of 15 decades; Margaret took the 2020s.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Margaret | Mary |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | #5 | #1 |
| 1890s | #4 | #1 |
| 1900s | #4 | #1 |
| 1910s | #4 | #1 |
| 1920s | #5 | #1 |
| 1930s | #8 | #1 |
| 1940s | #14 | #1 |
| 1950s | #24 | #1 |
| 1960s | #52 | #3 |
| 1970s | #98 | #17 |
| 1980s | #95 | #33 |
| 1990s | #106 | #40 |
| 2000s | #147 | #71 |
| 2010s | #157 | #121 |
| 2020s | #124 | #130 |
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
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.
Mary
Most often read as "bitter" or "beloved"
The name goes back to Hebrew Miryam, and scholars have never agreed on its root. The traditional reading connects it to a Hebrew word for bitterness; others trace it to an Egyptian element meaning "beloved" or "love", which fits the Egyptian setting of the earliest bearer in the Hebrew Bible. "Rebellious" and "wished-for child" have also been proposed. An unusually rich argument for such a short name, and none of the readings has won.
Miryam → Mariam → Maria → Marie → Mary
How it traveled
The name begins as Miryam in the Hebrew Bible, borne by the sister of Moses. When Jewish scholars translated those scriptures into Greek, they rendered it Mariam and Maria, and the Greek New Testament used the same forms — which is how the name spread with Christianity across the Roman world.
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
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.
Mary
MAIR-ee
In much of the United States it rhymes with "merry" and "marry", since those vowels have merged for most American speakers. Elsewhere in the English-speaking world the first syllable stays distinct, closer to MAY-ree.
- Molly — An old informal short form of Mary, and long since a standalone given name in its own right.
- Polly — Formed from Molly by the same rhyming shift that gave Peggy from Margaret; now used independently.
- Mae — Also spelled May; used both as a nickname and, very often, as a middle name on its own.
- Mamie — A nursery form common in earlier American generations; rarely given at birth today.
- Also Mimi, Marie.
Who has carried each name
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
Mary
Mary Shelley (b. 1797) — Wrote Frankenstein at 18
Mary Wollstonecraft (b. 1759) — Wrote the founding text of feminism in 1792
Mary Cassatt (b. 1844) — Impressionist painter of mothers and children
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 Margaret if you want…
- a name most people already know#112 in 2025, 2,436 babies that year
- a name on the way upup 14 places on the charts in five years
- a name with more sound in itMargaret runs 3 syllables, Mary 2
Choose Mary if you want…
- a name fewer children share#125 in 2025 — mary will almost certainly be the only one in school
- a name holding steadyMary is holding its place on the charts
- a name with fewer syllablesMary is 2 syllables to Margaret's 3
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
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.
Mary
Strengths
- Spelled and pronounced correctly on first hearing almost everywhere in the English-speaking world.
- One of the longest unbroken records of any name in Europe, in continuous use since antiquity.
- Has a native form in nearly every European language, plus Hebrew and Arabic, so it travels without becoming foreign.
To consider
- The name is inseparable from Christian tradition, above all from the mother of Jesus. For many families that is the reason to choose it; if your family has no connection to that, expect the association to be assumed anyway.
- Its bearers today skew heavily toward older generations, so a child named Mary will likely be the only one in her class while every adult she meets knows the name well — a slightly odd combination of rare and utterly familiar.
- In most American accents it sounds identical to "merry", which occasionally makes for confusion in December.
Documented properties of each name — how it spells, travels and shortens — not opinions about the child.
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 Margaret and Mary 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 Margaret and Mary?
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
- The top-10 club: every name that made it
- Victorian names ready for a second century
- The sweet spot: familiar but not everywhere
- all guides
Every list here names both Margaret and Mary — the same style, ranked by the same records.
Margaret or Mary — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Margaret or Mary?
- Margaret, in 2025: Margaret ranked #112 with 2,436 babies; Mary ranked #125 with 2,230 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Margaret or Mary?
- Margaret. Over the last five years Margaret moved up 14 places; Mary moved down 2 places.
- Which is the older name, Margaret or Mary?
- The US record cannot say: both were already in use when it began in 1880.
- How many people are named Margaret and Mary?
- About 504,000 people named Margaret are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 1,789,000 people named Mary are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Margarets or Marys in the classroom?
- Margaret will almost certainly be the only one in school. Mary will almost certainly be the only one in school.
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 Margaret, Mary and the rest of your shortlist with your last name in one printable report.
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