Marguerita
Feminine · “Pearl”
Marguerita joins a French spelling to a Spanish ending, and the combination exists in neither language. French has Marguerite, Spanish has Margarita, and this is the front of one fastened to the back of the other, which is a very American thing for a name to be.
How old is the name Marguerita?
Marguerita first appears in US birth records in 1891 — 134 years ago. The typical Marguerita alive today was born around 1949, making them about 76 years old. About 700 people named Marguerita are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Marguerita most popular?
Marguerita peaked in 1897, reaching #1167 nationally. See the whole 1897 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From margarites to Marguerita
The story of Marguerita
The French form belonged to one of the more remarkable women of the sixteenth century. Marguerite de Navarre, sister of a king of France and queen of a small kingdom in the Pyrenees, wrote a collection of stories on the model of Boccaccio that was published after her death, corresponded with the leading religious thinkers of her day, and used her position to shelter reformers who would otherwise have been burned. She is the reason the French spelling carries the weight it does. The Spanish form took a different road and produced a diminutive, a flower, a cocktail and a great many people. Marguerita is what happens when a family with the sound in its ear and both spellings in front of it writes down something in between.
Meaning
Pearl
The word came into Greek from further east and into Latin from Greek, and it meant the pearl itself before it meant anybody. Every European form of the name descends from that single word, which is why they are all recognizably the same name despite looking so different. The gue in the middle of this spelling is a French device for keeping the g hard before an e; Spanish does not need it, because Spanish spells the hard g with a plain g before an a.
How the name formed
- margarites
- Margarita
- Marguerite
- Marguerita
Related forms: Marguerite · Margarita · Margherita · Margarete · Margareta · Malgorzata
Pronouncing Marguerita
mar-guh-REE-tuh
Four syllables with the stress on the third. The gue is said as a plain hard g, exactly as in guest, and the u in it is silent. Speakers who read the name as Spanish say mar-gah-REE-tah, which is the same thing with a fuller second vowel.
Nicknames for Marguerita
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
- 1891
- Most girls named
- 196134 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1167reached in 1897
- Change vs 1992
- 0.0%5 in 1994, from 5
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.
Marguerita in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Marguerite in French — same name
- Margarita in Spanish — same name
- Margherita in Italian — same name
- Margarete in German — same name
- Margareta in Swedish — same name
- Malgorzata in Polish — same name
Margueritas among us
people named Marguerita are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Marguerita sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- One of the most widely shared names in Europe, recognizable in a dozen languages with only small changes.
- An unusually rich set of short forms, Rita, Margo, Greta and Daisy, that sound nothing like each other.
- The meaning is concrete, pleasant and completely uncontested.
- The spelling belongs to neither of the two languages it is drawn from, so both French and Spanish speakers will correct it.
- The Spanish form is now the name of a cocktail in every bar in America, and the association travels.
- Four syllables is a long name day to day, and one of the short forms will be chosen early by somebody else.
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Marguerita
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Margueritas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Marguerita are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Marguerita in 2025?
- Marguerita is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Marguerita with classmates?
- Marguerita will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More M names
The most-given names starting with M, all years combined.
Mary#125 · Margaret#112 · Michelle#465 · Melissa#419 · Maria#87 · Martha#712 · Marie#617 · Mildred#1962
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Marguerita? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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