Morghan
Feminine · “Sea”
Morghan is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 1,296 girls against 5 boys since 1880.
Morgan is a Welsh name that reached English through the Arthurian romances and then through surnames, and the woman who carries it in those romances did not start out as a villain. She began as a healer, and the stories turned on her over about two hundred years.
How old is the name Morghan?
Morghan first appears in US birth records in 1981 — 44 years ago. The typical Morghan alive today was born around 2002, making them about 23 years old. About 1,300 people named Morghan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Morghan most popular?
Morghan peaked in 1999, reaching #2424 nationally. See the whole 1999 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Morcant to Morghan
The story of Morghan
In the earliest surviving account, Morgan is one of nine sisters on the island of Avalon, the most skilled of them in healing, and Arthur is carried to her to be cured. Within a century and a half the French romances had made her Arthur's hostile half-sister, and by the end of the Middle Ages she is the enchantress everybody now expects. The turn is visible in the manuscripts and it is worth knowing about, because it happened to a great many women in those stories and to almost none of the men. Separately, a British monk who taught in Rome and was condemned for arguing that people could choose to be good without help was known to history as Pelagius, from the Greek for the sea. Several early writers say plainly that this was a translation of his British name, which would make him a Morgan.
Meaningscholars disagree
Sea, plus an unsettled second element
The first half is the Welsh word for the sea and nobody disputes it. The second is argued over, with a word for a circle or edge the commonest suggestion, and the traditional gloss of sea-born is a reading rather than a translation. That the first element means sea is well enough established that medieval writers translated the name on that basis, which is a useful piece of evidence in itself.
How the name formed
- Morcant
- Morgan
- Morghan
Related forms: Morgan · Morvan
Pronouncing Morghan
MOR-gun
Two syllables with the stress at the front. The gh is silent as a pair; it writes a plain g, and the h is there to make the name look Welsh or Irish rather than to change anything.
Nicknames for Morghan
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
- 1981
- Most girls named
- 200661 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2424reached in 1999
- Change vs 2020
- −61.5%5 in 2021, from 13
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.
Morghan in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Morgan in Welsh — same name
- Morvan in Breton — related form
Morghans among us
people named Morghan are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Morghan sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- The spoken name is completely established in English and needs no explaining anywhere.
- It works for a child of either sex, and has done for as long as it has been in American use.
- There is a real Welsh name underneath, with a documented literary history a child can follow.
- The record carries this spelling for boys and girls both, so it does not signal a child's sex.
- The h changes nothing audible and will be dropped by almost everyone writing from dictation.
- The most famous bearer in fiction is a villain in most of the versions people have met.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Morghan 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 Morghan? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Morghan
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Morghans are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,300 people named Morghan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Morghan in 2025?
- Morghan is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Morghan with classmates?
- Morghan will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More M names
The most-given names starting with M, all years combined.
Mary#125 · Margaret#112 · Michelle#465 · Melissa#419 · Maria#87 · Martha#712 · Marie#617 · Mildred#1962
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Morghan? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Morghan 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