Meghana
Feminine · “cloud”
Meghana is a cloud. Sanskrit megha names the rain cloud specifically, the one that ends the hot season, and a whole tradition of Indian poetry is built on what that cloud means to people waiting for it. The gh in this spelling is not decoration and not silent — it writes a real consonant, breathed rather than plain, that English does not have.
How old is the name Meghana?
Meghana first appears in US birth records in 1982 — 43 years ago. The typical Meghana alive today was born around 2004, making them about 21 years old. About 1,000 people named Meghana are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Meghana most popular?
Meghana peaked in 2001, reaching #2411 nationally. Today it ranks #14942, 12,531 places below that high. See the whole 2001 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From megha to Meghana
The story of Meghana
The classical Sanskrit poet Kalidasa wrote a poem in which an exiled spirit asks a passing rain cloud to carry a message to his wife across the whole width of India, and the cloud's journey is described mountain by mountain. It is among the most-loved poems in the language and it is why megha carries what it carries. The name reached American records with immigration from India in the later twentieth century, and it arrived complete — spelled by the standard system for writing Sanskrit and Indian languages in the Latin alphabet, in which gh, bh, dh and th all mark breathed consonants rather than English letter pairs.
Meaning
cloud
Sanskrit megha is a rain cloud, and the name is its derived feminine. The word is old and its family is wide: it appears across the Indo-Aryan languages and gives the Meghna, one of the great rivers of Bengal, its name. There is nothing contested here. In a climate where the monsoon decides the year, the rain cloud is not a neutral image, and the name carries relief and abundance rather than gloom — a difference worth stating in English, where clouds mean something else.
How the name formed
- megha
- Meghana
Related forms: मेघना · Megha · Meghna · Meghana
Pronouncing Meghana
MEH-guh-nuh
MEH-guh-nuh, three syllables, stress at the front, with a breath released after the g. English speakers produce a plain g and the name survives it. What does not work is treating gh as silent, as in night — the g is fully sounded, and that is the one mistake worth heading off.
Nicknames for Meghana
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
- 1982
- Most girls named
- 200165 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2411reached in 2001
- Change vs 2022
- −16.7%5 in 2025, 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.
Meghana in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- मेघना in Sanskrit — transliteration
- Megha in Hindi — related form
- Meghna in Bengali — same name
- Meghana in Telugu — same name
Meghanas among us
people named Meghana are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 321,453 born in 2025 was named Meghana
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 Neena test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Meghana's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Neena climbed just as high around 1955, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Neena's path sketches the road Meghana is walking now.
Meghana 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
Meghana beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Meghana 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 a single concrete image with a whole poetic tradition attached to it.
- Megha works as a short form and is a complete name in India.
- Every letter is sounded, so the spelling follows directly from the pronunciation.
- English readers who know night and though may try to make the gh silent, which produces a name that does not exist.
- Meghan is a much more familiar name in America and this will be heard and written as it constantly.
- Three syllables with an unfamiliar consonant means the name gets introduced rather than simply used, at least at first.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Meghana to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Meghana? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Meghana
Feminine · #14942 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Meghanas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,000 people named Meghana are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Meghana in 2025?
- Meghana ranks #14942 among US girl names in 2025, with 5 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Meghana?
- About 1 in every 321,453 US girls born in 2025 was named Meghana — 5 in all.
- Will my child share the name Meghana with classmates?
- Meghana will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Meghana
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Hester#14942 · Lyda#14942 · Zula#14942 · Zona#14942 · Ula#14942 · Belva#14942 · Lucetta#14942 · Leala#14942
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Meghana? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Meghana and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
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
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle