Morgan
Feminine · “from Welsh mor”
Morgan is given to both — 223,626 girls and 45,643 boys since 1880. See Morgan as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Morgan comes out of Wales, where it has been in steady use since the early Middle Ages and is still one of the country's most familiar names and surnames. In the twelfth century Geoffrey of Monmouth gave the spelling its most famous early bearer: Morgen, the healer of the Isle of Apples, later known through Arthurian romance as Morgan le Fay. Two syllables, both easy in almost any accent, and a spelling that has barely shifted in a thousand years.
How old is the name Morgan?
Morgan first appears in US birth records in 1918 — 107 years ago. The typical Morgan alive today was born around 1999, making them about 26 years old. About 221,000 people named Morgan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Morgan most popular?
Morgan peaked in 1997, reaching #22 nationally. Today it ranks #312, 290 places below that high. See the whole 1997 chart.
Where it comes from
From Morcant to Morgan
The story of Morgan
The name begins as Old Welsh Morcant, which turns up in early medieval British records and passed into Welsh as Morgan, borne by men and later carried as one of the great Welsh surnames. Breton and French tradition took the Arthurian figure and made a feminine form, Morgane, which is why the name has two settled genders in Europe rather than one. In the United States it arrived by the American habit of turning surnames into first names, a route that opened it to both boys and girls; the feminine use grew far the faster of the two through the later twentieth century. Wales, meanwhile, never stopped using it for men, so the same six letters read masculine in Cardiff and feminine in California.
Meaningscholars disagree
from Welsh mor, "sea" — the second element is disputed
The first part is agreed: mor, "sea." The second is not. Old Welsh Morcant is usually read as mor plus cant, "circle" or "completion," giving the popular gloss "sea-circle"; others read the ending as "bright" or connect it to the widespread "born of the sea." The sea is solid ground here; what surrounds it is not.
How the name formed
- Morcant
- Morgan
- Morgane
- Morgana
Related forms: Morgan · Morcant · Morgane · Morgane · Morgana · Morgen
Pronouncing Morgan
MOR-gan
Stress on the first syllable, the second reduced to an unstressed -gan. Welsh speakers say it much the same way, with a tapped r. The French Morgane adds a final syllable: mor-GAN.
Nicknames for Morgan
High
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
- 1918
- Most girls named
- 199410,655 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #22reached in 1997
- Change vs 2023
- −21.8%977 in 2025, from 1,249
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.
Morgan in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Morgan in Welsh — same name
- Morcant in Old Welsh — same name
- Morgane in French — related form
- Morgane in Breton — related form
- Morgana in Italian — related form
- Morgen in Middle Latin — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Morgans among us
people named Morgan are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 1,645 born in 2025 was named Morgan
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 Ruby test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Morgan's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Ruby climbed just as high around 1911, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Ruby's path sketches the road Morgan is walking now.
Morgan is coming down from a big peak (#22 in 1997). This is the stretch of the cycle where a name starts to sound like the decade it ruled.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Morgan is headed
Morgan should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High 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.
Morgan beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Morgan in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- One spelling, no variants to correct: readers across English, Welsh and French recognize it on sight and say it the same way.
- A documented line running from Old Welsh Morcant to the present, with the written form essentially unchanged for centuries.
- Works unaltered for a boy or a girl, and needs no adjustment when traveling between English- and French-speaking countries.
- Short, two syllables, and heard clearly on a phone or across a playground.
- An established short form in Mo, plus casual Morgs, so there is somewhere to go without inventing anything.
- The gender reading flips by geography. In the US the spelling leans to girls; in Wales and much of Britain it is still firmly a man's name. A Morgan of either sex will meet people who expected the other.
- It is a heavily used surname too — think of firm names and the car marque — so it can read as a last name on a form until the first name is confirmed.
- The best-known bearer in older literature is Morgan le Fay, who moves from healer in the earliest text to antagonist in later Arthurian romance. Some people know that; most only half-remember it.
- Its big American wave has passed, which means a good many adults in their twenties share it while few babies do. A child is unlikely to meet another in class, and likelier to meet grown ones.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Morgan
Feminine · #312 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Morgans are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 221,000 people named Morgan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Morgan in 2025?
- Morgan ranks #312 among US girl names in 2025, with 977 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Morgan?
- About 1 in every 1,645 US girls born in 2025 was named Morgan — 977 in all.
- Will my child share the name Morgan with classmates?
- Morgan will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Morgan
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Tessa#311 · Brooke#313 · Catherine#313 · Elodie#310 · Harlow#309 · Amina#315 · Octavia#308 · Colette#316
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Morgan? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Morgan and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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