Megan
Masculine · “Pearl”
Megan is given to girls far more often — 440,065 girls against 1,104 boys since 1880. See Megan as a girl 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 1968 — 57 years ago. The typical Megan alive today was born around 1987, making them about 38 years old. About 1,100 people named Megan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Megan most popular?
Megan peaked in 1985, reaching #1020 nationally. 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
- 1968
- Most boys named
- 198982 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1020reached in 1985
- Change vs 2009
- +20.0%6 in 2014, 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.
Megan in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Megan in Welsh — same name
Megans among us
people named Megan 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
Megan 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
- 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.
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What they receive
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Megan
Masculine
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 1,100 people named Megan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Megan in 2025?
- Megan is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Megan with classmates?
- Megan 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 Megan? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Megan and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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