Margery
Feminine · “pearl”
Margery is the medieval English form of Margaret, and for several centuries it was the commoner of the two. The pearl behind them both came into Greek from further east and traveled everywhere from there.
How old is the name Margery?
Margery was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Margery alive today was born around 1929, making them about 96 years old. About 4,800 people named Margery are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Margery most popular?
Margery peaked in 1921, reaching #279 nationally. Today it ranks #13208, 12,929 places below that high. See the whole 1921 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From margarites to Margery
The story of Margery
Margaret was among the commonest women's names in medieval England, and Margery was its ordinary spoken form — Margery Kempe, whose book is the earliest autobiography in English, wrote in the early fifteenth century. The name faded and returned in the nineteenth. American use peaked around 1922, alongside the Scottish-influenced Marjorie, which is the same name with a different spelling.
Meaning
pearl
From the Greek margarites, 'pearl', which Greek borrowed from an eastern language and passed to every European one. Margery is Margaret through French Marguerite, and the spelling was influenced along the way by the herb marjoram — a resemblance of sound rather than of origin.
How the name formed
- margarites
- Marguerite
- Margery
Related forms: Marjorie · Marguerite · Margarete · Margherita
Pronouncing Margery
MAR-jur-ee
Three syllables, stress on the first, soft g. Margery and Marjorie are said identically.
Nicknames for Margery
Moderate
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
- 1921564 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #279reached in 1921
- Change vs 2019
- −14.3%6 in 2025, from 7
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.
Margery in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Marjorie in English — spelling variant
- Marguerite in French — related form
- Margarete in German — related form
- Margherita in Italian — related form
Margerys among us
people named Margery are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 267,878 born in 2025 was named Margery
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Oma test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Margery's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Oma climbed just as high around 1901, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Oma's path sketches the road Margery is walking now.
Margery sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Margery beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Margery in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The pearl meaning is transparent and undisputed.
- It has a documented medieval English record and a remarkable early bearer.
- Margie and Madge are both available and are very different in feel.
- Marjorie is commoner in American records and the two are easily confused.
- It is period-coded to the first half of the twentieth century.
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What they receive
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Margery
Feminine · #13208 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Margerys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 4,800 people named Margery are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Margery in 2025?
- Margery ranks #13208 among US girl names in 2025, with 6 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Margery?
- About 1 in every 267,878 US girls born in 2025 was named Margery — 6 in all.
- Will my child share the name Margery with classmates?
- Margery will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Margery
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
John#13208 · Vinnie#13208 · Jossie#13208 · Tressa#13208 · Erie#13208 · Bernadine#13208 · Euna#13208 · Jack#13208
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Margery? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Margery and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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