Humanverse

Megan vs Megen

American parents have registered 441,169 Megans since 1880, against 682 Megens. Megan is still ahead, with 301 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Megan against Megen, 1880 to 2025 0 6k 12k 18k 24k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Megan Megen

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

Megan has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1922 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1960, when Megan had 365 and Megen had 6.

Side by side

  Megan Megen
Total US births 441,169682
Most in one year 20,30343
Babies in 2025 301under 5
Estimated living today 429,000660
Median age today 3438
Peak year 19901985
Best rank 11th girls2,317th girls
Rank in 2025 887thunranked
First recorded 19221960
Girls / boys 440,065 / 1,104682 / 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 Megens alive today are over 38; half the Megans are over 34. That is 4 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Both names abroad

Countries whose statistics office publishes both names, so the comparison can be made somewhere other than the United States.

Country Megan Megen
England and Wales 70,92810

Every spelling a country files separately is added together, over whatever years that country publishes — which is not the same range in any two of them, so read the columns against each other and not the rows.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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