Meaghen
A feminine name derived from the Irish name Meaghan, meaning "pearl".
Name Census estimates that about 164 living Americans carry the first name Meaghen. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Meaghen today is around 38 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Meaghen births was 1985 (17 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Meaghen. 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.
People living today
164
~ 1 in 2,089,965 Americans
Peak year
1985
17 babies that year
Average age
38
years old
2001 SSA rank
#14,716
Tracked since 1978
Census
Meaghen in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 209 people with the first name Meaghen, which placed it at #37,369 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
#37,369
National first-name rank
People counted
209
209 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
90.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Meaghen
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Meaghen is White at 90.0%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (4.3%) and Black (3.8%). 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 Meaghen 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 Meaghen at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White90.0% · 188
- Two or more races4.3% · 9
- Black or African American3.8% · 8
- Hispanic or Latino1.9% · 4
Popularity
Meaghen: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Meaghen from the 1970s through to the 2000s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 94 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1980s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Meaghen 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 Meaghen during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Meaghens live
Origin
Meaning and history of Meaghen
The name Meaghen is derived from the Irish Gaelic name Medhbh, which means "intoxicating" or "from the mead circulators". This ancient Celtic name has its origins in Irish mythology, with one of the most famous bearers being the legendary warrior queen Medhbh (or Medb) of Connacht, who features prominently in the Irish mythological tales like the Cattle Raid of Cooley.
In its original Gaelic form, Medhbh was spelled with the medieval Gaelic letter 'edh', represented by a vowel symbol similar to the Greek letter psi. This letter eventually evolved into the digraph 'dh' in modern Irish orthography, leading to the modern spelling variants like Medb, Meadhbh, and Meaghen.
The name Meaghen gained popularity in the English-speaking world as a result of the Anglicization of Irish names during the 19th and 20th centuries. One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Meaghen can be found in the 1901 census records of Ireland, where a small number of individuals were listed with this spelling variation.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Meaghen. One such figure was Meaghen O'Donnell (born c. 1540), a 16th-century Irish noblewoman and wife of Aodh Ruadh Ó Domhnaill, the Irish Lord of Tír Conaill. Another was Meaghen O'Hara (1778-1854), an Irish-born American pioneer and one of the first settlers in the area that would become Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
In the realm of literature, Meaghen Delahunt (born 1958) is an Irish novelist and short story writer, best known for her works like "In the Blue House" and "The Red Notebook". Meaghen Brown (born 1969) is a contemporary Canadian author and poet, whose works include "Discipline" and "Lush Limes".
In the world of sports, Meaghen Mikkelson (born 1985) is a Canadian curler who has won multiple national and international championships, including the 2010 and 2018 Scotties Tournament of Hearts.
People
Meaghen + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Meaghen 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
Meaghen: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Meaghen?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 164 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Meaghen 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 2,089,965 US residents.
Is Meaghen a common name?
We classify Meaghen as "Very Rare". It ranks above 71.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 172 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Meaghen most popular?
The single biggest year for Meaghen was 1985, when 17 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Meaghen is about 38 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Meaghen in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 209 people with the name Meaghen, or 0.07 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #37,369 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 Meaghen 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 Meaghen?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Meaghen appears almost entirely female. Of the 218 people counted with this name, 99.5% 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 Meaghen?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Meaghen is White at 90.0%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (4.3%) and Black (3.8%). 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 Meaghen most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Meaghen in the 2020 Census, accounting for 90.0% (188 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 Meaghen in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Meaghen a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Meaghen 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 Meaghen still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Meaghen 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 Meaghen 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 share the name Meaghen?
You can see how many Americans are named Meaghen on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.