Meher
Feminine · “kindness”
Meher is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 869 girls against 12 boys since 1880.
Meher is kindness in Persian — mehr, which also means the sun and the god Mithra.
How old is the name Meher?
Meher first appears in US birth records in 1993 — 32 years ago. The typical Meher is a kid of about 8 — this name's wave is very recent. About 900 people named Meher are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Meher most popular?
Meher peaked in 2021, reaching #2674 nationally. Today it ranks #2691, 17 places below that high. See the whole 2021 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Mithra to Meher
The story of Meher
Mithra was an Iranian god of covenants and light, and his name became the Persian word for the sun, for kindness and for love all at once; the month of Mehr and the festival Mehregan are named for him. Meher Baba was an Indian spiritual teacher. The name is in current American use.
Meaning
kindness, love; sun
From the Persian mehr, 'kindness', 'love' and 'sun', descending from the Avestan Mithra, a deity of covenants and light. The Iranian month Mehr and the festival Mehregan carry it. A separate Punjabi meher, 'grace', from Arabic, also exists. The Persian is documented.
How the name formed
- Mithra
- mehr
- Meher
Related forms: مهر · Meher · Mehr
Pronouncing Meher
MEH-her
Two syllables, stress on the first. Persian says it much the same way.
Nicknames for Meher
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
- 1993
- Most girls named
- 202164 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2674reached in 2021
- Change vs 2024
- +64.1%64 in 2025, from 39
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.
Meher in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- مهر in Persian — transliteration
- Meher in Punjabi — related form
- Mehr in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, New York, New Jersey.
Mehers among us
people named Meher are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 25,114 born in 2025 was named Meher
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 Wilmetta test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Meher's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Wilmetta climbed just as high around 1918, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Wilmetta's path sketches the road Meher is walking now.
Meher 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
Where Meher is headed
Meher should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Meher beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Meher in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- That one word covers kindness, the sun and a god of covenants is a first-rate fact.
- The Mithra connection reaches back three thousand years.
- Two clean syllables with no pronunciation risk in English.
- The Meh clipping collides with modern slang.
- It reads as specifically Persian or Punjabi.
- Mehr and Meher are both in circulation.
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What they receive
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Meher
Feminine · #2691 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Mehers are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 900 people named Meher are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Meher in 2025?
- Meher ranks #2691 among US girl names in 2025, with 64 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Meher?
- About 1 in every 25,114 US girls born in 2025 was named Meher — 64 in all.
- Will my child share the name Meher with classmates?
- Meher will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Meher
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Aeris#2691 · Annmarie#2691 · Maricela#2691 · Cyra#2691 · Zulema#2691 · Adelyne#2691 · Layana#2691 · Sable#2691
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Meher? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Meher and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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