Meade
Masculine · “meadow”
Meade is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 515 boys against 6 girls since 1880.
Meade is the old English word mead, 'meadow', with a final e, and it names families who lived beside one. In American history it belongs to George Gordon Meade, who was handed command of the Union's Army of the Potomac on June 28, 1863, three days before the fighting at Gettysburg began.
How old is the name Meade?
Meade first appears in US birth records in 1913 — 112 years ago. The typical Meade alive today was born around 1938, making them about 87 years old. About 200 people named Meade are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Meade most popular?
Meade peaked in 1914, reaching #1608 nationally. See the whole 1914 chart.
Where it comes from
From Old English mǣd, 'meadow' to Meade
The story of Meade
Surnames taken from the landscape were common in medieval England, and Meade marked someone who lived at the meadow. George Meade was born in Cádiz, Spain, in 1815, where his father was an American merchant, and he trained at West Point before a long career as an army engineer and builder of lighthouses. Fort Meade in Maryland is named for him. The name reaches both boys and girls in the United States through the same surname; there is no separate source for either.
Meaning
meadow
Mead and meadow are the same word. Old English mǣd had a second form, mǣdwe, used after prepositions; that form became meadow while the plain one became mead. Mead the honey drink is an unrelated word.
How the name formed
- Old English mǣd, 'meadow'
- Middle English mede
- Meade, English surname
- Meade as a given name
Related forms: Mead
Pronouncing Meade
MEED
One syllable, rhyming with need; identical to the word mead.
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
- 1913
- Most boys named
- 191820 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1608reached in 1914
- Change vs 2009
- −16.7%5 in 2013, from 6
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.
Meade in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Mead in English — spelling variant
Meades among us
people named Meade 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
Meade 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 syllable with a plain, gentle meaning that works the same for a boy or a girl.
- A documented American namesake in General George Meade.
- Short enough to sit easily beside a long surname or middle name.
- Mead is also the honey drink, and people will mention it.
- Expect to add 'with an e' whenever it is spelled.
- Nearly every child given this spelling is a boy; a girl called Meade will meet it mostly on men in history books, though its meaning favors neither.
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What they receive
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Meade
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Meades are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 200 people named Meade are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Meade in 2025?
- Meade is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Meade with classmates?
- Meade will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More M names
The most-given names starting with M, all years combined.
Michael#21 · Matthew#32 · Mark#244 · Mason#39 · Martin#335 · Marvin#699 · Melvin#958 · Marcus#258
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Meade? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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