Margaret

Where Margaret comes from

From the name of 3rd century Saint Margaret the Virgin, from Middle English Margaret, from Old French Margaret (French Marguerite), from Latin Margarita, from Ancient Greek μαργαρίτης (margarítēs, “pearl”), ultimately from an Indo-Iranian source. The same source, through folk etymology, has produced Old English meregrot (“pearl”, literally “stone or pebble of the sea”), related to Old Saxon merigrita, merigriota (“pearl”), Old High German merigrioz, equivalent to mer- + groat.
— Wiktionary's entry for Margaret
  • Ancient Greek
  • 2 syllables
Along the way
  1. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #6 among girls — 1,578 babies in the first year on record.
  2. 1900
    Margaret Mitchell born
    American author and journalist
  3. 1911
    Peak, #3
    9,279 babies named Margaret — more than any year before or since.
  4. 1939
    Margaret Atwood born
    Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, pépiniériste and inventor
  5. 1971
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #86.
In the dictionary
  • A female given name from Ancient Greek.
Namesakes
  • Margaret Atwood · Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, pépiniériste and inventor, born 1939
  • Margaret Mitchell · American author and journalist, 1900–1949
  • Margaret Mead · American anthropologist, 1901–1978
  • Margaret Sanger · American birth control activist and nurse, 1879–1966
  • Margaret I of Denmark · Queen of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, 1353–1412

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.