Meghan
- Pronunciation
- [Me-ghan]
- Gender
- Female
- Meaning
- See Megan.
- Origin
- Anglo
About the Name Meghan
Meghan is a modern spelling variant of Megan, which is itself a Welsh pet form of Margaret — derived ultimately from the Greek Margarites, meaning "pearl." As a respelling of a respelling, Meghan has no independent ancient etymology of its own; it represents one point in a chain of phonetic adaptations that moved from Greek through Latin and Welsh into English. The -ghan spelling gives the name a slightly more formal or distinctive look on the page while preserving the same two-syllable pronunciation, and it became particularly visible in English-speaking culture in the 1980s as the Megan cluster of spellings expanded.
Meghan first entered the US Social Security top-1000 in 1983 and peaked just two years later in 1985 at its best rank of #63, reflecting how quickly the spelling caught on once it arrived in the top-1000. The name maintained a long, gradually declining presence, appearing as recently as 2021 at #989 with 262 births — nearly four decades of continuous top-1000 presence. Total tracked births reached 62,430. In its most recent years it ranked #880 in 2020 and #735 in 2019, showing a steady slide that mirrors the broader retreat of the entire Megan spelling cluster from current fashion.
Today Meghan feels like a solidly 1980s–90s name that carries a distinctive Anglophone character. Parents choosing it now are typically reaching for the exact spelling rather than a generic phonetic preference. Recorded variants are Maegan and Meagan, two further spellings within the same phonetic family.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Meghan
US Popularity History (1983–2021)
Annual US births named Meghan by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 1985 with 4,670 girls named Meghan (girl rank #63 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2021, ranked #989 for girls (262 US births). That's 926 places below its 1985 peak.
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Where in the US Is Meghan Most Popular?
Average girl-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's girls-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Meghan the strongest states are Florida, Connecticut, Massachusetts.
Strongest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Florida | #524 | 364 |
| 2 | Connecticut | #560 | 27 |
| 3 | Massachusetts | #571 | 70 |
| 4 | New Jersey | #642 | 126 |
| 5 | Maryland | #661 | 38 |
| 6 | New York | #804 | 218 |
| 7 | North Carolina | #804 | 35 |
| 8 | Pennsylvania | #830 | 36 |
| 9 | Georgia | #872 | 34 |
| 10 | Virginia | #938 | 23 |
Weakest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Illinois | #1,103 | 37 |
| 2 | California | #1,033 | 187 |
| 3 | Texas | #958 | 187 |
| 4 | Virginia | #938 | 23 |
| 5 | Georgia | #872 | 34 |
| 6 | Pennsylvania | #830 | 36 |
| 7 | North Carolina | #804 | 35 |
| 8 | New York | #804 | 218 |
| 9 | Maryland | #661 | 38 |
| 10 | New Jersey | #642 | 126 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Meghan in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
Looking for names like Meghan?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Meghan to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Meghan against today's most popular girls-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).