Megha
Feminine · “Sanskrit megha”
Kalidasa wrote a poem in which an exiled spirit asks a passing monsoon cloud to carry a message to his wife. The Meghaduta, the cloud messenger, is about a hundred and twenty verses and it spends most of them describing the route the cloud will take. Megha is that cloud, and in Indian poetry the monsoon cloud is the standard figure for longing.
How old is the name Megha?
Megha first appears in US birth records in 1978 — 47 years ago. The typical Megha alive today was born around 2002, making them about 23 years old. About 1,200 people named Megha are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Megha most popular?
Megha peaked in 2001, reaching #2171 nationally. Today it ranks #8362, 6,191 places below that high. See the whole 2001 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From megha to Megha
The story of Megha
The monsoon is the organizing fact of the Indian year and classical poetry treats its arrival as the emotional center of the calendar. The rains break a summer that has been unbearable, they are the season of return and of reunion, and separation during them is the sharpest form of separation. That is the setting of the Meghaduta: a yaksha, exiled from his home for a year, sees the first cloud of the season and asks it to carry word north. Most of the poem is the itinerary he gives it, a description of the landscape of northern India from the ground up, which is why the work is also a piece of geography. Kalidasa wrote in the fourth or fifth century and is generally considered the greatest poet in Sanskrit. The poem has been translated into most Indian languages and imitated for fifteen hundred years.
Meaning
Sanskrit megha, a cloud
From Sanskrit megha, a cloud, specifically a rain cloud, from a root associated with sprinkling or shedding water. The word gives the name of the raga Megh and appears throughout classical Indian poetry. It is used as a given name in Hindi, Marathi and Gujarati, chiefly for women. It peaks in the American data in 2001.
How the name formed
- megha
- Megha
Related forms: Megha · Megha
Pronouncing Megha
MEH-gah
Two syllables, stress on the first. The gh is an aspirated g, a single sound made with a breath after it, which English does not have; English speakers say a plain g. It is not the g of ghost followed by an h.
Nicknames for Megha
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
- 1978
- Most girls named
- 200175 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2171reached in 2001
- Change vs 2024
- −33.3%12 in 2025, from 18
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.
Megha in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Megha in Hindi — transliteration
- Megha in Sanskrit — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Washington.
Meghas among us
people named Megha are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 133,939 born in 2025 was named Megha
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 Branda test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Megha's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Branda climbed just as high around 1973, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Branda's path sketches the road Megha is walking now.
Megha sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Megha beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Megha in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is settled and carries a large poetic tradition.
- Meg is a ready English short form.
- It is short and easy to spell.
- The aspirated consonant does not exist in English.
- Megan and Meghan are near neighbors and unrelated.
- It is rare outside South Asian families.
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What they receive
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Megha
Feminine · #8362 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Meghas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,200 people named Megha are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Megha in 2025?
- Megha ranks #8362 among US girl names in 2025, with 12 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Megha?
- About 1 in every 133,939 US girls born in 2025 was named Megha — 12 in all.
- Will my child share the name Megha with classmates?
- Megha will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Megha
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Lona#8362 · Peggy#8362 · Leda#8362 · Margarette#8362 · Rella#8362 · Evalena#8362 · Vashti#8362 · Nona#8362
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Megha? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Megha and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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