Megen
Feminine · “pearl”
Megen changes the vowel in the unstressed syllable of a Welsh name, which means the change cannot be heard at all. The Greek compound its letters approach produced two English words, and one of them has almost disappeared.
How old is the name Megen?
Megen first appears in US birth records in 1960 — 65 years ago. The typical Megen alive today was born around 1987, making them about 38 years old. About 700 people named Megen are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Megen most popular?
Megen peaked in 1985, reaching #2317 nationally. See the whole 1985 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Margaret to Megen
The story of Megen
Migraine is a Greek compound: hemi-krania, half the skull, describing the one-sided headache that is the condition's most recognizable feature. It came into English through Latin and French, and on the way English speakers wore it down into megrim — which was the ordinary English word for the condition for several centuries, and which also came to mean low spirits, a whim or a fit of dizziness, so that a person in the megrims was out of sorts rather than specifically in pain. Horses get the megrims too, in older veterinary writing. The French-looking spelling migraine was reimported later and pushed megrim out, leaving one Greek word that entered English twice, several centuries apart, and produced two words that most speakers would not connect.
Meaningscholars disagree
pearl, by way of a Welsh familiar form
The Welsh name is a pet form of Margaret, which comes from the Greek word for a pearl — though that Greek word was itself borrowed from further east and its own origin is not settled. The changed vowel here sits in a syllable that reduces to nothing and carries no information.
How the name formed
- Margaret
- Meg
- Megan
- Megen
Related forms: Megan
Pronouncing Megen
MEG-un
Two syllables with the stress at the front. The first vowel is said two different ways in American English and both are standard; the changed second vowel makes no difference at all.
Nicknames for Megen
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
- 1960
- Most girls named
- 198543 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2317reached in 1985
- Change vs 2005
- 0.0%6 in 2006, 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.
Megen in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Megan in Welsh — same name
Megens among us
people named Megen 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
Megen 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 comes off it at once and needs no explanation anywhere.
- Two syllables with front stress is the plainest shape English has.
- The name behind it is genuinely Welsh and has been in use there for centuries.
- Megan is overwhelmingly the standard spelling and this will be corrected constantly.
- The first vowel is genuinely unsettled even in the standard spelling.
- The changed letter is silent, so the spelling must be given aloud every time.
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Megen
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Megens 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 Megen are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Megen in 2025?
- Megen is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Megen with classmates?
- Megen 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 Megen? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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