Meagan
A variant of Megan, derived from the Welsh name Meg meaning "pearl".
Name Census estimates that about 39,815 living Americans carry the first name Meagan. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Meagan today is around 35 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Meagan births was 1990 (2,537 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Meagan. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Meagan with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Meagan is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 72 boys registered with the name since 1880.
- • Compared to the 1990s, recent registration numbers for Meagan have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
40K
~ 1 in 8,609 Americans
Peak year
1990
2,537 babies that year
Average age
35
years old
1994 SSA rank
#8,426
Tracked since 1954
Census
Meagan in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 36,926 people with the first name Meagan, which placed it at #1,118 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#1,118
National first-name rank
People counted
37K
36,926 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
12.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
82.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Meagan
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Meagan is White at 82.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (6.9%) and Black (4.9%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Meagan described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Meagan at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White82.2% · 30,356
- Hispanic or Latino6.9% · 2,538
- Black or African American4.9% · 1,804
- Two or more races4.1% · 1,510
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.4% · 502
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 216
Gender
Gender distribution for Meagan
Out of the 41,619 babies given the name Meagan since 1880, 99.8% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Meagan as a male name
- Ranked #8,426 in 1994
- 6 male births in 1994
- Peak: 1984 (12 births)
Meagan as a female name
- Ranked #9,321 in 2024
- 11 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1990 (2,531 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Meagan appears almost entirely female. Of the 36,925 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Meagan: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Meagan from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 17,124 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Meagan by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Meagan during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Meagans live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. Texas, California, New York recorded the most babies named Meagan, while Delaware, Wyoming, North Dakota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 779 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Meagan
The name Meagan is an Anglicized form of the Irish name Muadhnait, which is derived from the Gaelic words "muad" meaning "honorable" and "nait" meaning "fire" or "radiant." The name was prominent in ancient Irish culture, dating back to the 5th century AD.
Meagan was originally a feminine name used by the Gaels, a group of Celtic peoples inhabiting Ireland and parts of Scotland. The earliest recorded instance of the name appears in the Annals of Ulster, an ancient chronicle of medieval Irish history, where it is spelled "Muadnait."
In the 9th century, the name Muadhnait was borne by an Irish princess who became a nun and was later canonized as Saint Muadhnait. Her feast day is celebrated on April 19th in the Catholic Church, and she is venerated as the patron saint of County Louth, Ireland.
Another notable figure with the name was Muadhnait Ní Cholmáin, a 12th-century Irish poet and princess from the kingdom of Uí Failghe. Her poems, which were written in the Irish language, were highly regarded during her lifetime and are still studied today.
As the name spread beyond Ireland, it underwent various spelling changes and adaptations. In the 16th century, the English variant "Meagan" emerged, and it grew in popularity during the 19th and 20th centuries.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name "Meegan" (an alternative spelling) was in the 17th century. Meegan Bourke was an Irish noblewoman who lived from 1630 to 1689 and was known for her involvement in the Irish Confederate Wars.
In more recent history, Meagan Duhamel (1876-1964) was a Canadian author and educator who wrote extensively about the culture and history of the French-Canadian community. Meagan Lee Hagerty (1923-2011) was an American actress and singer who performed on Broadway and in films during the mid-20th century.
People
Meagan + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Meagan as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with M
Other first names starting with M with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Meagan: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Meagan?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 39,815 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Meagan going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 8,609 US residents.
Is Meagan a common name?
We classify Meagan as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 41,619 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Meagan most popular?
The single biggest year for Meagan was 1990, when 2,537 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Meagan is about 35 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Meagan in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 36,926 people with the name Meagan, or 12.23 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,118 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Meagan in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Meagan?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Meagan appears almost entirely female. Of the 36,925 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Meagan?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Meagan is White at 82.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (6.9%) and Black (4.9%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Meagan most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Meagan in the 2020 Census, accounting for 82.2% (30,356 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Meagan in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Meagan a female name?
Yes, 99.8% of people registered as Meagan in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Meagan still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Meagan in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Meagan can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many Americans are named Meagan?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many Americans are named Meagan at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.