Meredith
- Pronunciation
- [Me-re-dith]
- Gender
- Female
- Meaning
- Protector Of The Sea
- Origin
- Celtic
About the Name Meredith
Meredith descends from the Welsh Maredudd, of uncertain etymology — possibly from mawredd (greatness, magnificence) plus iudd (lord) — yielding "great lord" or "protector of the sea." The name has been used continuously in Welsh naming traditions for over a millennium, anchored by multiple medieval Welsh princes named Maredudd.
The name's overwhelming modern cultural anchor is the iconic Meredith Grey of ABC's Grey's Anatomy (2005–present, played by Ellen Pompeo) — the iconic American TV character whose 20+ seasons of medical drama anchored the name in 2000s and 2010s American TV memory. Other notable bearers include American actress Meredith Vieira (born 1953, the iconic American TV personality of NBC's Today 2006–2011); American writer Meredith Salenger; and the iconic American novelist George Meredith (using Meredith as a surname).
Meredith's American climb peaked in the 1980s and 1990s, reaching the US top 200 girls' rank from 1985 through 2010. The name has receded slightly since but remains in steady use, currently sitting in the US top 300 girls' rank. The name has been used for both genders historically, but tilts predominantly female in modern American naming. The name's appeal is its layered Welsh-medieval pedigree combined with three flowing syllables — the in-built greatness/sea-protector etymological register, the strong Meredith Grey TV cultural anchor, and tonal versatility from casual to formal registers. The name reads as both classical-Welsh and contemporary American. Common nicknames Meredith itself often shortens — Merry (the dominant warm short form, casual and warm), Mer, Edie (alternate, a popular standalone name on its own), Dy, and the rare Reedy each carry distinct registers; the alternate spellings Meredith, Meredythe, and Maredudd (Welsh original) have their own SSA tracking. International forms include Maredudd (Welsh original), and the original Welsh Maredudd.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Meredith
US Popularity History (2000–2025)
Annual US births named Meredith by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2000 with 1,092 girls named Meredith (girl rank #293 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #469 for girls (656 US births). That's 176 places below its 2000 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.
Paste the snippet below on any HTML page. Includes a credit link back to 9BabyNames — please keep it intact.
Where in the US Is Meredith 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 Meredith the strongest states are New Hampshire, Mississippi, West Virginia.
Strongest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New Hampshire | #224 | 29 |
| 2 | Mississippi | #328 | 90 |
| 3 | West Virginia | #331 | 17 |
| 4 | Louisiana | #332 | 152 |
| 5 | Kentucky | #359 | 122 |
| 6 | Connecticut | #368 | 34 |
| 7 | Indiana | #378 | 174 |
| 8 | Alabama | #378 | 145 |
| 9 | North Carolina | #381 | 256 |
| 10 | Nebraska | #383 | 26 |
Weakest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | California | #844 | 272 |
| 2 | Florida | #775 | 148 |
| 3 | New Jersey | #771 | 41 |
| 4 | Washington | #754 | 55 |
| 5 | New York | #747 | 181 |
| 6 | Arizona | #734 | 66 |
| 7 | Illinois | #660 | 156 |
| 8 | Oregon | #649 | 39 |
| 9 | Colorado | #582 | 78 |
| 10 | Minnesota | #572 | 94 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Meredith in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
| Name | Meaning | Gender | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Merry | Happy | Female | English |
Looking for names like Meredith?
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 Meredith to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Meredith against today's most popular girls-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).