Meredith
Of Welsh origin meaning "sea protector" or "great ruler".
Name Census estimates that about 69,978 living Americans carry the first name Meredith. It sits at #492 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It is a predominantly female name (94.8% of registrations). The average person named Meredith today is around 39 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Meredith births was 1980 (2,087 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Meredith. 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
70K
~ 1 in 4,898 Americans
Peak year
1980
2,087 babies that year
Average age
39
years old
2011 SSA rank
#492
Tracked since 1883
Gender
Gender distribution for Meredith
Meredith leans heavily female at 94.8% of total registrations, but 4,257 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Meredith as a male name
- Ranked #13,654 in 2011
- 5 male births in 2011
- Peak: 1920 (106 births)
Meredith as a female name
- Ranked #492 in 2024
- 621 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1980 (2,071 births)
Popularity
Meredith: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Meredith from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 19,392 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
Meredith 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 Meredith during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Merediths live
The SSA's state-level files cover 50 states and territories. Texas, New York, North Carolina recorded the most babies named Meredith, while Alaska, Montana, Hawaii recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,477 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Meredith
The name Meredith is of Welsh origin, derived from the Welsh words "mor" meaning "sea" and "rhyddhau" meaning "to free" or "to spread out." It was initially used as a Welsh surname before being adopted as a given name.
The name is believed to have originated in the medieval period, around the 12th or 13th century, when Welsh surnames first began to emerge. The earliest recorded use of the name Meredith as a surname dates back to the late 13th century, found in records from the county of Herefordshire, England.
One of the earliest known historical references to the name Meredith is in the Welsh manuscript "Llyfr Baglan" (The Book of Baglan), dating back to the late 14th century. This manuscript contains a collection of Welsh poetry and mentions a poet named Meredith ap Rhys.
In the 16th century, the name Meredith gained popularity as a given name, primarily among the Welsh gentry and nobility. One notable figure with this name was Meredith Hanmer (c. 1543-1604), a Welsh clergyman and historian who wrote the influential work "The Chronicle of Ireland."
During the 17th century, the name Meredith began to spread beyond Wales and into other parts of Britain. One famous bearer of this name was Meredith Frampton (1589-1664), an English politician and member of the Long Parliament during the English Civil War.
In the 18th century, the name Meredith was further popularized by the works of the English writer and playwright George Meredith (1828-1909), who is considered one of the greatest novelists of the Victorian era. His most famous works include "The Egoist" and "The Ordeal of Richard Feverel."
Another prominent figure with the name Meredith was Meredith Wilson (1902-1984), an American composer and playwright best known for writing the popular musical "The Music Man."
Other notable individuals with the name Meredith throughout history include:
Meredith Kline (1922-2007), an American Christian theologian and Old Testament scholar.
Meredith Vieira (born 1953), an American journalist and television host.
Meredith Brooks (born 1958), an American singer-songwriter and guitarist.
Meredith Willson (1902-1984), an American composer and playwright.
Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum (born 1969), a German showjumper and equestrian.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Meredith
People
Meredith + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Meredith 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
Meredith: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Meredith?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 69,978 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Meredith 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 4,898 US residents.
Is Meredith a common name?
We classify Meredith as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 81,382 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Meredith most popular?
The single biggest year for Meredith was 1980, when 2,087 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Meredith is about 39 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Meredith a female name?
Yes, 94.8% of people registered as Meredith 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.
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.