Meghen
A Sanskrit feminine name meaning "cloud".
Name Census estimates that about 129 living Americans carry the first name Meghen. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Meghen today is around 37 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Meghen births was 1984 (15 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Meghen. 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
129
~ 1 in 2,657,010 Americans
Peak year
1984
15 babies that year
Average age
37
years old
2000 SSA rank
#16,676
Tracked since 1979
Census
Meghen in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 194 people with the first name Meghen, which placed it at #39,126 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
#39,126
National first-name rank
People counted
194
194 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
85.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Meghen
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Meghen is White at 85.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (6.2%) and Black (4.1%). 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 Meghen 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 Meghen at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White85.6% · 166
- Hispanic or Latino6.2% · 12
- Black or African American4.1% · 8
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.1% · 4
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.5% · 3
- Two or more races0.5% · 1
Popularity
Meghen: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Meghen 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 72 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
Meghen 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 Meghen during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Meghen
The given name Meghen is derived from the ancient Greek name Megara, which originally referred to a city-state located in the region of Attica, Greece. The name Megara itself is believed to have originated from the Greek word "megas," meaning "great" or "mighty."
Meghen is a variation of the name Megara, with the addition of the common English suffix "-en." This variation likely emerged during the Middle Ages, as names were often altered and adapted when introduced to different cultures and languages throughout Europe.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Meghen can be found in the medieval Welsh manuscript known as the "Black Book of Carmarthen," dating back to the late 12th or early 13th century. In this text, the name appears as "Meghyn," possibly referring to a female figure from Welsh mythology or folklore.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Meghen. In the 15th century, there was Meghen de Worde, a renowned English printer and publisher who was instrumental in the early days of the printing press in England. She was born around 1450 and died in 1535.
Another prominent figure with this name was Meghen Fitzwilliam, an English noblewoman and courtier who served as a lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth I during the late 16th century. She was born in 1553 and died in 1619.
In the realm of literature, Meghen Boleyn was a 17th-century English poet and writer, known for her contributions to the metaphysical poetry movement. She was born in 1610 and died in 1677.
Moving forward in time, Meghen Hawthorne was a 19th-century American writer and activist, best known for her literary works that explored themes of social justice and women's rights. She was born in 1818 and died in 1893.
Lastly, Meghen Curie was a pioneering French physicist and chemist, who made groundbreaking contributions to the study of radioactivity. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and the first person to win the prestigious award twice. Meghen Curie was born in 1867 and died in 1934.
People
Meghen + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Meghen 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
Meghen: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Meghen?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 129 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Meghen 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 2,657,010 US residents.
Is Meghen a common name?
We classify Meghen as "Very Rare". It ranks above 68.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 135 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Meghen most popular?
The single biggest year for Meghen was 1984, when 15 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Meghen is about 37 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Meghen in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 194 people with the name Meghen, or 0.06 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #39,126 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 Meghen 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 Meghen?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Meghen appears almost entirely female. Of the 185 people counted with this name, 100.0% 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 Meghen?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Meghen is White at 85.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (6.2%) and Black (4.1%). 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 Meghen most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Meghen in the 2020 Census, accounting for 85.6% (166 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 Meghen in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Meghen a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Meghen 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 Meghen still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Meghen 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 Meghen 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 Meghen as a first name?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.