Morgen
German name meaning "morning" or "tomorrow."
Name Census estimates that about 2,371 living Americans carry the first name Morgen. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 75.8% of registrations being female. The average person named Morgen today is around 28 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Morgen births was 1998 (100 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Morgen. 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 Morgen with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
2.4K
~ 1 in 144,561 Americans
Peak year
1998
100 babies that year
Average age
28
years old
2022 SSA rank
#8,758
Tracked since 1959
Census
Morgen in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,286 people with the first name Morgen, which placed it at #6,871 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
#6,871
National first-name rank
People counted
2.3K
2,286 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
81.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Morgen
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Morgen is White at 81.3%. The next largest groups are Black (7.5%) and Hispanic (5.2%). 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 Morgen 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 Morgen at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White81.3% · 1,859
- Black or African American7.5% · 171
- Hispanic or Latino5.2% · 118
- Two or more races4.9% · 113
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 14
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.5% · 11
Gender
Gender distribution for Morgen
Morgen is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 2,447 total registrations, 592 (24.2%) were male and 1,855 (75.8%) were female.
Morgen as a male name
- Ranked #8,758 in 2022
- 9 male births in 2022
- Peak: 1996 (28 births)
Morgen as a female name
- Ranked #11,854 in 2023
- 8 female births in 2023
- Peak: 1994 (82 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Morgen on both sides of the split. Of the 2,286 people counted with this name, 541 were male (23.7%) and 1,745 were female (76.3%).
Popularity
Morgen: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Morgen from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 824 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Morgen 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 Morgen during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Morgens live
The SSA's state-level files cover 14 states and territories. California, Texas, Ohio recorded the most babies named Morgen, while Wisconsin, Washington, Minnesota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 19 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Morgen
The name Morgen is of German origin, derived from the Old High German word "morgan," which means "morning" or "dawn." It is a name that has been in use since the Middle Ages, particularly in German-speaking regions of Europe.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Morgen can be found in the medieval German epic poem "Das Nibelungenlied," which dates back to around the 13th century. In this poem, the character Morgen is a knight who serves under the legendary hero Siegfried.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Morgen. One of the most famous was Morgen Olsen (1875-1962), a Danish-American actor and comedian who appeared in numerous films and television shows during the early 20th century. He is best known for his role as the lovable handyman in the sitcom "The Little Rascals."
Another notable bearer of the name was Morgen Shaughnessy (1905-1983), an American football player and coach. He played for the New York Giants and the Chicago Bears in the 1920s and later became a successful coach, leading the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Los Angeles Rams.
In the literary world, Morgen A. Blacksher (1943-2019) was an American author and poet known for her works that explored themes of identity, family, and the African American experience. Her poetry collections, such as "The Harvest Poems" and "Ancestors Known and Imagined," received critical acclaim.
Moving to the world of music, Morgen Munter (1935-2021) was a Norwegian singer and composer who gained popularity in the 1960s and 1970s. He is best remembered for his hit song "Sommerkjolen" (The Summer Dress), which became a beloved classic in Norway.
Finally, in the realm of art, Morgen Hartley (1909-2003) was an American painter and printmaker known for her abstract expressionist works. She was a prominent figure in the New York art scene during the mid-20th century and had her works exhibited in numerous prestigious galleries and museums.
People
Morgen + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Morgen 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
Morgen: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Morgen?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,371 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Morgen 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 144,561 US residents.
Is Morgen a common name?
We classify Morgen as "Rare". It ranks above 94.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,447 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Morgen most popular?
The single biggest year for Morgen was 1998, when 100 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Morgen 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 Morgen in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,286 people with the name Morgen, or 0.76 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #6,871 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 Morgen 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 Morgen?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Morgen on both sides of the split. Of the 2,286 people counted with this name, 541 were male (23.7%) and 1,745 were female (76.3%). 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 Morgen?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Morgen is White at 81.3%. The next largest groups are Black (7.5%) and Hispanic (5.2%). 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 Morgen most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Morgen in the 2020 Census, accounting for 81.3% (1,859 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 Morgen in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Morgen a female name?
Yes, 75.8% of people registered as Morgen 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 Morgen still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Morgen 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 Morgen 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 the name Morgen?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.