Megan
Feminine · “Pearl”
Megan is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 440,065 girls against 1,104 boys since 1880. See Megan as a boy name
The Welsh had no fixed surnames, and the word for son of is why so many of them now begin with P or B. Ap Rhys became Price, ap Hywel became Powell, ap Owen became Bowen: the little word collapsed onto the front of the father's name and froze there when English administration demanded permanent surnames.
How old is the name Megan?
Megan first appears in US birth records in 1922 — 103 years ago. The typical Megan alive today was born around 1990, making them about 35 years old. About 430,000 people named Megan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Megan most popular?
Megan peaked in 1985, reaching #10 nationally. Today it ranks #887, 877 places below that high. See the whole 1985 chart.
Where it comes from
From Margaret to Megan
The story of Megan
The system it replaced was a genealogy rather than a label. A Welshman was his father's son and his grandfather's grandson, and a formal identification could run back four or five generations in a single string, which was perfectly workable in a country where everyone knew the families and hopeless for a tax collector. The change was pushed through over two or three centuries after the Acts of Union, and it left Wales with one of the smallest surname stocks in Europe: a handful of patronymics, repeated everywhere, which is why nicknames and house names still do the real work of telling people apart.
Meaning
Pearl
A Welsh pet form of Margaret, whose Greek original means a pearl. The route is long: Greek to Latin to French to English to Welsh and back into English as an independent name, at which point English speakers who had never heard of the connection took it up on its own terms.
How the name formed
- Margaret
- Marged
- Megan
Related forms: Megan
Pronouncing Megan
MEG-un
Two syllables with the stress at the front. Some American speakers give the first vowel the long sound instead, and both readings are established enough that the name has to be introduced.
Nicknames for Megan
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
- 1922
- Most girls named
- 199020,259 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #10reached in 1985
- Change vs 2023
- −27.8%301 in 2025, from 417
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.
Megan in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Megan in Welsh — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Megans among us
people named Megan are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 5,340 born in 2025 was named Megan
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 Laura test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Megan's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Laura climbed just as high around 1969, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Laura's path sketches the road Megan is walking now.
Megan is coming down from a big peak (#10 in 1985). This is the stretch of the cycle where a name starts to sound like the decade it ruled.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Megan is headed
Megan 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.
Megan beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Megan in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Meg is a complete short form with centuries of English use behind it.
- The meaning is a single concrete word and easy to give a child.
- It is a genuine Welsh name rather than an English construction.
- The record carries it for boys in small numbers, so it is not quite an absolute signal.
- Two first vowels are current and the spelling settles neither.
- Meghan and Megann are both in circulation and will be written instead.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Megan to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Megan
Feminine · #887 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Megans are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 430,000 people named Megan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Megan in 2025?
- Megan ranks #887 among US girl names in 2025, with 301 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Megan?
- About 1 in every 5,340 US girls born in 2025 was named Megan — 301 in all.
- Will my child share the name Megan with classmates?
- Megan will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Megan
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Berkley#887 · Aviana#887 · Vada#884 · Rebekah#884 · Tilly#884 · Lilianna#890 · Leanna#890 · Anais#892
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Megan? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Megan and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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