Meggan
Feminine · “pearl”
Meggan doubles a consonant that Welsh spelling would never double. Welsh is famously regular — its letters do one job each, and it has no use for the English trick of doubling a consonant to shorten the vowel in front of it — so this spelling is English machinery applied to a Welsh name.
How old is the name Meggan?
Meggan first appears in US birth records in 1957 — 68 years ago. The typical Meggan alive today was born around 1984, making them about 41 years old. About 2,800 people named Meggan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Meggan most popular?
Meggan peaked in 1985, reaching #863 nationally. See the whole 1985 chart.
Where it comes from
From Marged to Meggan
The story of Meggan
Welsh spelling was reformed to be regular and largely is: a reader who knows the rules can say any Welsh word correctly on sight, which is not true of English. That regularity is exactly why Welsh names get respelt when they cross the border. English readers cannot tell that the spelling is already doing its job, so they apply their own conventions on top — doubling consonants, adding silent letters, swapping y for i — and the result is a name that looks more explained and is not. Meggan, Meghan, Megann and Meaghan all come out of that, and all of them are said exactly as the Welsh original is.
Meaning
pearl
The name descends through Welsh from Margaret and carries the pearl unchanged. The doubling is an English spelling device and affects nothing.
How the name formed
- Marged
- Megan
- Meggan
Related forms: Megan · Marged
Pronouncing Meggan
MEG-un
Two syllables with the weight at the front. The doubled g changes nothing at all; Megan and Meggan are said identically.
Nicknames for Meggan
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
- 1957
- Most girls named
- 1985185 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #863reached in 1985
- Change vs 2011
- +12.5%9 in 2013, from 8
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.
Meggan in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Megan in Welsh — spelling variant
- Marged in Welsh — related form
Meggans among us
people named Meggan 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
Meggan 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
- Said aloud it is completely familiar and needs no explanation.
- Meg is one of the most established short forms in English.
- The name behind it is genuinely Welsh with a documented line back to Margaret.
- Megan is the standard spelling and will be written instead, every time.
- Welsh speakers will point out that the doubling does not belong.
- The extra letter adds no sound, so the difference exists only on paper.
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Meggan
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Meggans are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,800 people named Meggan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Meggan in 2025?
- Meggan is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Meggan with classmates?
- Meggan 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 Meggan? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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