Morgan
Masculine · “from Welsh mor”
Morgan is given to both — 45,643 boys and 223,626 girls since 1880. See Morgan as a girl 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 was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Morgan alive today was born around 1992, making them about 33 years old. About 38,500 people named Morgan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Morgan most popular?
Morgan peaked in 1995, reaching #236 nationally. Today it ranks #559, 323 places below that high. See the whole 1995 chart.
Morgan appears on these lists:
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
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 19951,258 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #236reached in 1995
- Change vs 2022
- −3.3%532 in 2025, from 550
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, Florida.
Morgans among us
people named Morgan are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 3,211 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 Rudy 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: Rudy climbed just as high around 1947, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Rudy's path sketches the road Morgan is walking now.
Morgan is on its second act. Revived names age gently: the generation that wore them first is far enough away that the name feels classic rather than dated.
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 looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 19% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
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.
Morgan beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Morgan in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys 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
Masculine · #559 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 38,500 people named Morgan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Morgan in 2025?
- Morgan ranks #559 among US boy names in 2025, with 532 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Morgan?
- About 1 in every 3,211 US boys born in 2025 was named Morgan — 532 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.
Ariel#558 · Porter#560 · Deacon#561 · Saul#557 · Mohammad#561 · Armando#556 · Chosen#555 · Zakai#563
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Morgan? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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