Margaret
Feminine · “pearl”
Margaret is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 1,264,774 girls against 3,745 boys since 1880. See Margaret as a boy name
Margaret has been one of the standard names of the English-speaking world for the better part of a thousand years, and it has produced more disguised short forms than any other. What is less well known is that the medieval English mouth produced two full names out of it as well, and both are still in use as though they were separate.
How old is the name Margaret?
Margaret was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Margaret alive today was born around 1933, making them about 92 years old. About 504,000 people named Margaret are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Margaret most popular?
Margaret peaked in 1891, reaching #3 nationally. Today it ranks #112, 109 places below that high. See the whole 1891 chart.
Where it comes from
From margarites to Margaret
The story of Margaret
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. Meanwhile English speech was doing what it does to long names. Margaret in a medieval English mouth came out as Margery, and Margery in a Norman-French one as Marjorie, and both were written down as names in their own right and have been treated as separate ever since — which is why a Marjorie and a Margaret are often surprised to learn they are the same person.
Meaning
pearl
The Greek margarites, a pearl, which the language took from further east along the trade routes that brought the pearls themselves.
Cultural footprint
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.
How the name formed
- margarites
- Margarita
- Margaret
Related forms: Marguerite · Margarita · Margarete · Margareta · Margit · Marged
Pronouncing 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.
Nicknames for Margaret
High
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 192128,468 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3reached in 1891
- Change vs 2022
- +10.8%2,436 in 2025, from 2,199
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Margaret in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Marguerite in French — same name
- Margarita in Spanish — same name
- Margarete in German — same name
- Margareta in Swedish — same name
- Margit in Hungarian — related form
- Marged in Welsh — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Illinois.
Margarets among us
people named Margaret are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 660 born in 2025 was named Margaret
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
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 scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Margaret is headed
Margaret should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Margaret beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Margaret in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- 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.
- It has an unbroken written history of well over a thousand years.
- 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.
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What they receive
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Margaret
Feminine · #112 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Margarets are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 504,000 people named Margaret are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Margaret in 2025?
- Margaret ranks #112 among US girl names in 2025, with 2,436 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Margaret?
- About 1 in every 660 US girls born in 2025 was named Margaret — 2,436 in all.
- Will my child share the name Margaret with classmates?
- Margaret will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Margaret
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Cora#113 · Catalina#111 · Rose#114 · Juliette#110 · Eliza#115 · Athena#109 · Raelynn#116 · Cecilia#108
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Margaret? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Margaret and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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