Megumi
A feminine Japanese name meaning "blessing" or "favor".
Name Census estimates that about 561 living Americans carry the first name Megumi. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Megumi today is around 28 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Megumi births was 1991 (25 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Megumi. 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 Megumi with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
561
~ 1 in 610,970 Americans
Peak year
1991
25 babies that year
Average age
28
years old
2024 SSA rank
#14,616
Tracked since 1973
Census
Megumi in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,773 people with the first name Megumi, which placed it at #8,218 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
#8,218
National first-name rank
People counted
1.8K
1,773 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
85.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Megumi
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Megumi is Asian/Pacific Islander at 85.2%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (10.2%) and White (2.3%). 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 Megumi 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 Megumi at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander85.2% · 1,511
- Two or more races10.2% · 180
- White2.3% · 41
- Hispanic or Latino2.0% · 35
- Black or African American0.3% · 6
Popularity
Megumi: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Megumi from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 197 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
Megumi 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 Megumi during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Megumis live
Origin
Meaning and history of Megumi
The name Megumi is of Japanese origin, derived from the words "me" meaning blessing or favor, and "gumi" meaning beautiful. It is a feminine name that has been in use since ancient times in Japan.
In the Kojiki, one of the oldest extant chronicles in Japanese history dating back to the early 8th century, there is a reference to a woman named Megumi no Kishi, which means "Blessed Lady." This suggests that the name Megumi has been in use for over a millennium.
The earliest recorded example of the name Megumi can be found in the Nihon Shoki, another ancient Japanese chronicle from the 8th century, which mentions a woman named Megumi no Miyatsuko, meaning "Blessed Lady of the Court."
One of the most famous historical figures with the name Megumi was Megumi Andō (1899-1975), a Japanese actress and singer who was a prominent figure in the early days of Japanese cinema. She appeared in over 250 films and was widely regarded as one of the greatest actresses of her time.
Another notable Megumi was Megumi Tachimori (1888-1937), a Japanese feminist and activist who played a significant role in the women's suffrage movement in Japan. She was a founding member of the New Women's Association and worked tirelessly to promote gender equality and women's rights.
In the realm of literature, Megumi Sawaki (1901-1965) was a renowned Japanese novelist and poet. She was a recipient of the prestigious Akutagawa Prize for her novel "Hana no Akari" (Light of Flowers) in 1936.
Megumi Kato (1984-present) is a contemporary Japanese writer and illustrator known for her manga series "Hana ni Arashi" (Storm in the Flowers), which explores themes of love, friendship, and self-discovery.
Lastly, Megumi Yokota (1964-1977) was a Japanese national who was abducted by North Korean agents in 1977 at the age of 13, becoming a tragic symbol of the ongoing issue of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea. Her case has been a source of ongoing diplomatic tensions between Japan and North Korea.
People
Megumi + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Megumi 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
Megumi: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Megumi?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 561 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Megumi 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 610,970 US residents.
Is Megumi a common name?
We classify Megumi as "Very Rare". It ranks above 85.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 580 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Megumi most popular?
The single biggest year for Megumi was 1991, when 25 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Megumi is about 28 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Megumi in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,773 people with the name Megumi, or 0.59 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #8,218 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 Megumi 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 Megumi?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Megumi leans strongly female. 1,755 people counted with this name were female (98.9%), compared with 19 male bearers (1.1%). 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 Megumi?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Megumi is Asian/Pacific Islander at 85.2%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (10.2%) and White (2.3%). 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 Megumi most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Megumi in the 2020 Census, accounting for 85.2% (1,511 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 Megumi in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Megumi a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Megumi 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 Megumi still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Megumi 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 Megumi 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 Megumi?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.