girl's name
Meadow
MED-oh
- Origin English
- Gender Girl
- Syllables 2
- Letters 6
- Popularity Top 1000 (US)
- Births on record 15,875
the United States
#286
2025 births
Meadow is a girl's name from the English word for grassland, whose root means "to mow" — so a meadow is defined by being cut. It ranks 170th in Scotland and 286th in the United States.
- Meadow is a name of English origin.
- Peaked in 2025, when 1,078 babies were given the name.
- It has been rising over the past decade.
- Today about 1 in 3,075 babies in the United States is given this name.
- First appears in US birth records in 1914.
- 2 syllables, with the stress on syllable 1.
Meadow over time
Births per decade in the United States, 1910s to 2020s. The striped bar is the 2020s, still in progress — it covers 2020 to 2025, not a full ten years.
Show the numbers
| Decade | Births |
|---|---|
| 1910s | 6 |
| 1960s | 6 |
| 1970s | 169 |
| 1980s | 74 |
| 1990s | 138 |
| 2000s | 3,025 |
| 2010s | 3,978 |
| 2020s (to 2025) | 4,959 |
What Meadow means
Meadow means a mown field, from the Old English mædwe. The root is the verb to mow, so a meadow is not simply grassland but grassland kept for hay — land defined by what is done to it.
Where Meadow comes from
Meadow comes from the Old English mædwe, related to mawan, to mow — the same root as the modern verb. A meadow in the original sense is specifically land kept for hay rather than grazed, which is why medieval manors valued it so highly and why the word appears constantly in Domesday entries. The name's use for children is recent and American, and it is inseparable from Meadow Soprano in The Sopranos, which ran from 1999; our data shows the name entering the charts in earnest immediately after. It belongs with River, Willow and Sky in the wave of nature nouns used as names since the 1990s, and it is the only one of that group whose meaning describes human work rather than landscape alone.
Meadow in use
Meadow ranks 170th in Scotland with 25 births in 2024 and 286th in the United States with 1,078 births, its largest market, and it is rising with its peak in our records in 2025. Our records carry it from 1914, but the volume is entirely post-1999. It holds 292nd in England and Wales and 224th in Ireland.
How popular is Meadow?
In 2025, Meadow was given to 1,078 babies in the United States, ranking #286 that year. It is a well-established, commonly used name.
Where Meadow is used
US figures omit any name given to fewer than five babies in a year, so the rarest names are absent from the source rather than absent from use. Data & sources.
Names that peaked alongside Meadow
These names rose and fell in the same era, which is why they tend to sound like they belong together.
Parents who like Meadow also like
Names whose popularity has risen and fallen in step with Meadow over the last century — the same taste, a different name.
Sibling names for Meadow
Names from the same era that won't rhyme or share an initial with Meadow — the two things that make a sibling set grate.
Common questions about Meadow
What does the name Meadow mean?
Meadow means "a mown field," from the Old English mædwe — the root is the verb to mow.
Is a meadow just grassland?
Originally no. A meadow was land kept for hay rather than grazed, which is why it was valued so highly in medieval manors.
Did The Sopranos make Meadow popular?
Our data shows the name entering the charts in earnest immediately after the series began in 1999.
How popular is Meadow?
170th in Scotland and 286th in the United States.
Is Meadow a girl's or a boy's name?
Meadow is given almost entirely to girls in birth records.
How many syllables are in Meadow?
Meadow has 2 syllables.
Is Meadow a good name?
That is not something records can settle, but they can tell you what you would be choosing. Meadow currently ranks #170 in the United States. It has been rising over the past decade. Everything else — how it sounds with your surname, who it reminds you of — is yours.