Head to head · Girls' names
Meredith vs Monroe
#469 vs #467 in 2025
Monroe is a whisker ahead (#467 vs #469 in 2025), but the curves point different ways: Monroe is holding its place on the charts, Meredith is back after a long quiet spell. On momentum, Meredith 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, Meredith leads 4 measures of 6; Monroe 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
- 1890s: Meredith #1426, Monroe — — Meredith higher
- 1900s: Meredith #1400, Monroe — — Meredith higher
- 1910s: Meredith #924, Monroe — — Meredith higher
- 1920s: Meredith #770, Monroe #3436 — Meredith higher
- 1930s: Meredith #607, Monroe #3847 — Meredith higher
- 1940s: Meredith #443, Monroe — — Meredith higher
- 1950s: Meredith #539, Monroe #4833 — Meredith higher
- 1960s: Meredith #541, Monroe — — Meredith higher
- 1970s: Meredith #178, Monroe — — Meredith higher
- 1980s: Meredith #149, Monroe — — Meredith higher
- 1990s: Meredith #232, Monroe #9280 — Meredith higher
- 2000s: Meredith #362, Monroe #6271 — Meredith higher
- 2010s: Meredith #586, Monroe #941 — Meredith higher
- 2020s: Meredith #529, Monroe #529
Meredith stood higher in every recorded decade — 13 of 13.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Meredith | Monroe |
|---|---|---|
| 1890s | #1426 | — |
| 1900s | #1400 | — |
| 1910s | #924 | — |
| 1920s | #770 | #3436 |
| 1930s | #607 | #3847 |
| 1940s | #443 | — |
| 1950s | #539 | #4833 |
| 1960s | #541 | — |
| 1970s | #178 | — |
| 1980s | #149 | — |
| 1990s | #232 | #9280 |
| 2000s | #362 | #6271 |
| 2010s | #586 | #941 |
| 2020s | #529 | #529 |
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
Meredith
Not established
The second element is generally read as iudd, a lord, which is well attested in Welsh names. The first is not agreed: proposals include a word for great or splendor, and none is demonstrated. Great lord is the usual gloss and it is a reconstruction of half a name. Meredith is the English spelling of Maredudd, and the surname form is Meredydd or Bedward in various renderings; the given name in English use descends from the surname.
Maredudd → Meredydd → Meredith
How it traveled
A men's name crosses to women by a fairly reliable route: it becomes a surname, the surname gets used as a first name for boys, it sounds soft enough to be given to a girl once, and once it is common for girls it stops being given to boys entirely. Meredith is a textbook case, and the crossing happened in America between the nineteen-twenties and the nineteen-fifties.
Monroe
'mouth of the River Roe' — a place name
The reading repeated most often traces it to Gaelic elements meaning the mouth of the Roe, a river in the north of Ireland, and matches Clan Munro's own traditional account of its origins. Other readings attach the first element instead to Gaelic monadh, 'hill' or 'moorland'. Either way it is landscape rather than character — a place a family came from.
Munro → Munroe → Monroe
How it traveled
Monroe is one of the anglicized spellings of the Scottish surname Munro, borne by a Highland clan documented from the thirteenth century in Easter Ross. Scottish and Ulster-Scots emigration carried the surname to North America in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, where it settled into the spelling with an o.
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
Meredith
MAIR-uh-dith
MAIR-uh-dith, three syllables, stress at the front, the middle reduced. Welsh Maredudd puts the weight on the middle syllable and ends in a sound English does not have, so the two versions are audibly different names.
- Merry — The front softened, which lands on an English word and is used knowingly.
- Edie — Built from the middle and the end, and a standing name of its own.
- Mer — The front clipped, short and used among friends rather than on paper.
Monroe
mun-ROH
Stress falls on the second syllable. Some speakers reduce the first to 'mn-ROH'; the surname Munro is said the same way.
- Roe — Informal, drawn from the second syllable; also used as a standalone surname-name.
- Mo — Informal and short; shared with Maureen, Morgan and Mohammed, so rarely unambiguous on its own.
- Ro — Informal, mostly within families; sometimes written Roh or Rowe.
Is it right for you
The differences that decide it, laid out by what you want
Choose by what you want
Choose Meredith if you want…
- a name on the way upup 116 places on the charts in five years
- a name with more sound in itMeredith runs 3 syllables, Monroe 2
Choose Monroe if you want…
- a name holding steadyMonroe is holding its place on the charts
- a name with fewer syllablesMonroe is 2 syllables to Meredith'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
Meredith
Strengths
- It has a documented thousand-year history as a Welsh princely name.
- Merry, Mer and Edie are three short forms in three quite different registers.
- Three syllables with a firm front stress, which carries a short surname well.
To consider
- In Wales this is a man's name, and Welsh speakers will read it that way whatever an American form says.
- The meaning is only half recoverable, so any gloss offered is a reconstruction.
- It is strongly associated with the middle of the last century in America.
Monroe
Strengths
- Americans already recognize the spelling from the presidential and Hollywood surnames, so it is usually written correctly on first hearing.
- Works unchanged for a boy or a girl, and needs no feminine or masculine variant.
- A documented clan name in Scotland since the thirteenth century — a long, traceable line behind a modern-sounding choice.
To consider
- Marilyn Monroe is the association most adults reach for first. It is affectionate rather than awkward, but it will come up, and it is worth deciding now whether you mind.
- Munro and Munroe are both live spellings, so expect a certain amount of correcting — usually of the vowel rather than the whole name.
- Most children given this spelling now are girls, so a boy named Monroe will occasionally be assumed female on paper before anyone meets him.
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 Meredith and Monroe 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 Meredith and Monroe?
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 these names appear on
- Vintage names making a comeback
- Eight-letter names with presence
- Names ending in -th
- Borrowed from the boys: names girls are winning
- all guides
Where Meredith and Monroe each sit in the library — alternatives in the same style, ranked by the same records.
Meredith or Monroe — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Meredith or Monroe?
- Monroe, in 2025: Monroe ranked #467 with 658 babies; Meredith ranked #469 with 656 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Meredith or Monroe?
- Meredith. Over the last five years Meredith moved up 116 places; Monroe moved up 74 places.
- Which is the older name, Meredith or Monroe?
- Meredith entered the US charts in 1895; Monroe entered the US charts in 1928. On the American record, Meredith is the older name.
- How many people are named Meredith and Monroe?
- About 72,000 people named Meredith are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 7,200 people named Monroe are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Merediths or Monroes in the classroom?
- Meredith will almost certainly be the only one in school. Monroe 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
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