Margaret
given name · Latin script
Recorded as a female name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
Margaret is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in China than in any other country. In Ireland it is the 28th most common given name. Recorded meaning: Greek ‘pearl’; popularized by St Margaret, queen of Scots; widely introduced by Anglo-Normans.
- GBUnited Kingdom≈1 in 251(inferred from the name graph)
- IEIreland≈1 in 273
- NZNew Zealand≈1 in 329
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). Where a country counts another spelling of the name rather than Margaret itself, the figure is that spelling’s, and it is named. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- China (inferred from the name graph)
- #135 (measured from records)
- 6 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 604 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 251 (inferred from the name graph)
≈4,000,000 people, est.
of 15M given names
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
United Kingdom, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
Greek ‘pearl’; popularized by St Margaret, queen of Scots; widely introduced by Anglo-Normans.
Sources 1
- Irish first names
Attested across 9 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Margaret counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CN China | — | ≈4,000,000 est. | ≈1 in 352 | — | Margaret | 58 |
| US United States | #62 | 549,715 | 1 in 605 | 549K | Margaret | 604 |
| GB United Kingdom | #36 | ≈260,000 est. | ≈1 in 251 | 15 | Margaret | 342 |
| SE Sweden | — | 198,622as Margareta | 1 in 51 | 199K | Margaret | 69 |
| NG Nigeria | #343 | ≈140,000 est. | ≈1 in 1.5K | — | Margaret | 102 |
| IE Ireland | #28 | ≈19,000 est. | ≈1 in 273 | 32 | Margaret | 155 |
| NZ New Zealand | #38 | ≈15,000 est. | ≈1 in 329 | 20 | Margaret | 160 |
| IS Iceland | #40 | 2,738as Margrét | 1 in 128 | 3K | Margaret | 24 |
Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; NRS — Baby names Scotland full list (1974–present); Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population); DIA — Baby name popularity (1900–present); CSO — Irish Babies Names (1998–present); Þjóðskrá Íslands — Name frequencies (NafnTíðni, registry); Hagstofa Íslands — Given-name frequency by population (2005). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Margaret is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
An extremely common medieval given name, derived via Old French Marguerite and Latin Margarita from Greek Margarités, from margaron ‘pearl’, a word ultimately of Hebrew origin. The name was always understood to mean ‘pearl’ throughout the Middle Ages. The first St Margaret was martyred at Antioch in Pisidia during the persecution instigated by the Emperor
as a nameA concise dictionary of first names
In English, A female given name from Ancient Greek.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In French, Du grec margarites, « perle ».
as a nameLe grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)
In English, Greek 'pearl'
as a nameBaby names, 25,350 baby names nicknames for your family, friends pets, including the top 100 names, 2,000 most popular…
In English, Latin; a pearl
as a nameBaby names, 25,350 baby names nicknames for your family, friends pets, including the top 100 names, 2,000 most popular…
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Margaret Theresa of Spainb. 1651ESHoly Roman empress (1651-1673)
- Margaret Mitchellb. 1900USAmerican author and journalist (1900–1949)
- Margaret Meadb. 1901USAmerican anthropologist (1901-1978)
- Peggy Ashcroftb. 1907GBnot in their usual nameBritish actress (1907-1991)
- Margot Fonteynb. 1919GBnot in their usual nameBritish ballerina
- Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdonb. 1930GBBritish princess (1930–2002)
- Margaret Atwoodb. 1939CACanadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, pépiniériste and inventor (born 1939)
- Margaret Smith Courtb. 1942AUAustralian tennis player
- Sally Fieldb. 1946USnot in their usual nameAmerican actress
- Margaret Qualleyb. 1994USAmerican actress (born 1994)
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 119 sources across 64 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 549K | #76 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 2.4K | — |
| SE Sweden | Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population) | — | 2.3K | #972 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 556 | #76 |
| SE Sweden | SCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023) | 2020 | 498 | — |
| IE Ireland | CSO — Irish Babies Names (1998–present) | 2017 | 32 | #165 |
| NZ New Zealand | DIA — Baby name popularity (1900–present) | 2025 | 20 | — |
| IS Iceland | Þjóðskrá Íslands — Name frequencies (NafnTíðni, registry) | 2026 | 19 | — |
| GB United Kingdom | NRS — Baby names Scotland full list (1974–present) | 2024 | 15 | #244 |
Reference works 5
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- Ethiopian name tokens (GitHub lehagere/ethiopian-names, 40/60 condominium list)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- What are other forms of the name Margaret?
- In the etymology graph, Margarita, Mae and Marjorie are forms of the same name in other languages; Margie, Maggie and Mamie are recorded short or pet forms.
- What does the name Margaret mean, and where does it come from?
- Greek ‘pearl’; popularized by St Margaret, queen of Scots; widely introduced by Anglo-Normans. Recorded by Irish first names.
- Is Margaret a male or female name?
- Margaret is a female name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.
- In which country does Margaret have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 4.0 million people named Margaret in China, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled margaret.
- How common is the name Margaret?
- In the United States, the national register counted 549,715 people named Margaret in 2020, about 1 in 605 residents.
- How common is Margaret compared with other names?
- In Ireland, Margaret is the 28th most common given name of 14,976 given names recorded there.
What do you want to know about Margaret?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/margaretThe same payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), and bulk access is licensed separately.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Margaret” — the 28th most common given name in Ireland. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.