Meg
A diminutive of Margaret, derived from the Greek meaning pearl.
Name Census estimates that about 4,653 living Americans carry the first name Meg. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Meg today is around 45 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Meg births was 1959 (196 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Meg. 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 Meg with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
4.7K
~ 1 in 73,663 Americans
Peak year
1959
196 babies that year
Average age
45
years old
2022 SSA rank
#14,712
Tracked since 1941
Census
Meg in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 7,319 people with the first name Meg, which placed it at #3,035 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
#3,035
National first-name rank
People counted
7.3K
7,319 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
87.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Meg
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Meg is White at 87.7%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (5.4%) and Two or More Races (2.5%). 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 Meg 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 Meg at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White87.7% · 6,422
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.4% · 393
- Two or more races2.5% · 186
- Hispanic or Latino2.5% · 182
- Black or African American1.6% · 116
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 20
Popularity
Meg: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Meg from the 1940s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 1,343 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1960s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Meg 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 Meg during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Megs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 26 states and territories. New York, California, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Meg, while Georgia, Louisiana, Virginia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 90 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Meg
The name Meg is a diminutive form of the name Margaret, which is derived from the Greek name Margarites, meaning "pearl". The name Margaret was introduced to England after the Norman conquest of 1066 and became increasingly popular during the Middle Ages.
The earliest recorded use of the name Meg can be traced back to the late 13th century in England. It was a common pet form of Margaret, used as a nickname or shortened version of the longer name.
One of the earliest known references to the name Meg can be found in the works of Geoffrey Chaucer, the renowned English poet from the 14th century. In his famous work, "The Canterbury Tales", he mentions a character named Meg, although it is unclear whether this was a real person or a fictional character.
In the 15th century, a Scottish noblewoman named Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox, was often referred to as Meg by her contemporaries. She lived from around 1515 to 1578 and was a prominent figure during the turbulent reign of Mary, Queen of Scots.
During the Elizabethan era, a play by Thomas Dekker and John Webster titled "Westward Ho" featured a character named Meg, who was a practical and outspoken woman. This play, first performed in 1607, provides an early depiction of the name in literature.
In the 17th century, a woman named Meg Shelton, born around 1630, became famous for her skills as a midwife and herbalist in colonial Virginia. She was highly respected in her community and is remembered as one of the earliest professional midwives in America.
Another notable figure was Meg Merrilies, a fictional character created by Sir Walter Scott in his novel "Guy Mannering" published in 1815. Meg Merrilies was a gypsy fortune-teller and her character became a significant figure in popular culture, representing the stereotypical image of a gypsy woman.
Throughout history, the name Meg has been associated with various personalities, from noblewomen and literary characters to midwives and fortune-tellers. While it may have started as a diminutive form of Margaret, the name Meg has established its own unique identity and continues to be used as a independent given name.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Meg
People
Meg + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Meg 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
Meg: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Meg?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 4,653 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Meg 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 73,663 US residents.
Is Meg a common name?
We classify Meg as "Rare". It ranks above 96.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 5,321 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Meg most popular?
The single biggest year for Meg was 1959, when 196 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Meg is about 45 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Meg in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 7,319 people with the name Meg, or 2.42 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,035 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 Meg 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 Meg?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Meg leans strongly female. 7,239 people counted with this name were female (98.7%), compared with 92 male bearers (1.3%). 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 Meg?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Meg is White at 87.7%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (5.4%) and Two or More Races (2.5%). 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 Meg most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Meg in the 2020 Census, accounting for 87.7% (6,422 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 Meg in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Meg a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Meg 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 Meg still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Meg 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 Meg 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 Meg as a first name?
If you just want to know how many people have the name Meg, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.