Meaghan
A feminine variant of the Irish name Meaghan meaning "pearl".
Name Census estimates that about 13,405 living Americans carry the first name Meaghan. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Meaghan today is around 35 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Meaghan births was 1986 (744 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Meaghan. 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 Meaghan with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
13K
~ 1 in 25,569 Americans
Peak year
1986
744 babies that year
Average age
35
years old
1989 SSA rank
#6,690
Tracked since 1955
Census
Meaghan in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 13,110 people with the first name Meaghan, which placed it at #2,077 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
#2,077
National first-name rank
People counted
13K
13,110 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
4.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
89.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Meaghan
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Meaghan is White at 89.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (3.8%) and Two or More Races (2.8%). 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 Meaghan 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 Meaghan at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White89.9% · 11,784
- Hispanic or Latino3.8% · 502
- Two or more races2.8% · 373
- Black or African American2.4% · 310
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.9% · 113
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 28
Gender
Gender distribution for Meaghan
Out of the 14,043 babies given the name Meaghan since 1880, 100.0% 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.
Meaghan as a male name
- Ranked #6,690 in 1989
- 7 male births in 1989
- Peak: 1989 (7 births)
Meaghan as a female name
- Ranked #8,257 in 2020
- 13 female births in 2020
- Peak: 1986 (744 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Meaghan appears almost entirely female. Of the 13,115 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Meaghan: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Meaghan 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 5,425 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
Meaghan 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 Meaghan during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Meaghans live
The SSA's state-level files cover 41 states and territories. Massachusetts, New York, California recorded the most babies named Meaghan, while Nevada, Idaho, Arkansas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 293 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Meaghan
The name Meaghan is a feminine given name of Irish origin, derived from the ancient Irish Gaelic name Medhbh or Meadhbh. In Irish mythology, Medhbh was a powerful warrior queen who ruled over the western province of Connacht. The name is believed to have originated sometime around the 5th or 6th century AD.
The name Medhbh is thought to be derived from the Old Irish words "med" meaning "intoxicating" and "bh" meaning "she" or "woman." The name was originally spelled with the older Gaelic form "Meadhbh" or "Medhbh," but over time, it evolved into various Anglicized spellings like Meaghan, Megan, Meagan, and Meghan.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Medhbh can be found in the ancient Irish epic "Táin Bó Cúailnge" (The Cattle Raid of Cooley), which dates back to the 8th or 9th century AD. In this epic, Medhbh is portrayed as a formidable and assertive queen who leads her army into battle against the legendary hero Cú Chulainn.
Throughout history, there have been several notable women named Meaghan or variations of the name. One of the earliest was Medhbh, the semi-legendary Queen of Connacht, who is believed to have lived in the 1st century AD. Another notable bearer of the name was Medhbh Ní Mhordha, an Irish noblewoman and landowner from the 16th century.
In more recent times, Meaghan Oppenheimer (born 1968) is an American writer and co-founder of the non-profit organization "The Babybox Company." Meaghan Rath (born 1986) is a Canadian actress known for her roles in the TV shows "Hawaii Five-0" and "New Girl." Meaghan Penlington (born 1989) is a former Australian rules football player who played for the Adelaide Crows in the AFL Women's competition.
Meaghan Morin (born 1989) is a Canadian professional wrestler and former Olympic weightlifter. Meaghan Martin (born 1992) is an American actress best known for her role in the Disney Channel series "Camp Rock."
People
Meaghan + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Meaghan 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
Meaghan: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Meaghan?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 13,405 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Meaghan 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 25,569 US residents.
Is Meaghan a common name?
We classify Meaghan as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 14,043 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Meaghan most popular?
The single biggest year for Meaghan was 1986, when 744 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Meaghan 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 Meaghan in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 13,110 people with the name Meaghan, or 4.34 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,077 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 Meaghan 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 Meaghan?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Meaghan appears almost entirely female. Of the 13,115 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 Meaghan?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Meaghan is White at 89.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (3.8%) and Two or More Races (2.8%). 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 Meaghan most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Meaghan in the 2020 Census, accounting for 89.9% (11,784 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 Meaghan in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Meaghan a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Meaghan 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 Meaghan still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Meaghan 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 Meaghan 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 people have Meaghan as a first name?
If you just want to know how many Americans are named Meaghan, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.