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Margaret vs Margart

American parents have registered 1,268,519 Margarets since 1880, against 598 Margarts. Margaret is still ahead, with 2,436 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Margaret against Margart, 1880 to 2025 0 8k 16k 24k 32k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Margaret Margart

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Margaret has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1892, when Margaret had 3,447 and Margart had 7.

Side by side

  Margaret Margart
Total US births 1,268,519598
Most in one year 28,52119
Babies in 2025 2,436under 5
Estimated living today 484,000190
Median age today 6870
Peak year 19211924
Best rank 4th girls2,062nd girls
Rank in 2025 112thunranked
First recorded 18801892
Girls / boys 1,264,774 / 3,745598 / 0

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Margarts alive today are over 70; half the Margarets are over 68. That is 2 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Margaret and Margart.