girl's name
Meredith
MER-uh-dith
- Origin Welsh
- Gender Girl
- Syllables 3
- Letters 8
- Popularity Top 1000 (US)
- Births on record 86,706
the United States
#469
2025 births
Meredith is a Welsh man's name that turned female in America — 95 percent of the births in our records are female, and the Welsh Maredudd it comes from was borne by princes of Deheubarth.
- Meredith is a name of Welsh origin.
- Peaked in 1980, when 2,087 babies were given the name.
- Its usage has held steady over the past decade.
- Today about 1 in 5,054 babies in the United States is given this name.
- First appears in US birth records in 1883.
- 3 syllables, with the stress on syllable 1.
Meredith over time
Births per decade in the United States, 1880s 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 |
|---|---|
| 1880s | 5 |
| 1890s | 34 |
| 1900s | 181 |
| 1910s | 1,023 |
| 1920s | 1,719 |
| 1930s | 1,913 |
| 1940s | 3,689 |
| 1950s | 3,397 |
| 1960s | 4,233 |
| 1970s | 16,095 |
| 1980s | 19,392 |
| 1990s | 12,843 |
| 2000s | 8,904 |
| 2010s | 5,152 |
| 2020s (to 2025) | 3,464 |
What Meredith means
Meredith means great lord, or sea lord. The Welsh second element is settled as a lord, but the first is disputed between great and sea, so the compound has two readings.
Where Meredith comes from
Meredith is the Welsh Maredudd, whose second element is iudd, a lord, and whose first is argued — mawr, great, and a word for the sea are both proposed. Maredudd ab Owain ruled Deheubarth in the tenth century. The name was entirely masculine in Wales for a thousand years and crossed to female use in twentieth-century America, taking the same route as Ashley, Shirley and Evelyn. It remains a man's name in Welsh use.
Meredith in use
Meredith peaked in the United States in 1980, when 2,087 babies were registered, and our data marks it stable rather than falling. It charts in four of the seven markets we track — 469th in the United States on 656 births, 769th in Canada, 777th in England and Wales on 44 and 4448th in France — across 86,706 lifetime births. About 95 percent of recorded births are female.
How popular is Meredith?
In 2025, Meredith was given to 656 babies in the United States, ranking #469 that year. It is a well-established, commonly used name.
Where Meredith 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.
How Meredith is spelled
Birth registers count each spelling separately, so every one has its own ranking.
| Spelling | What it is | Births on record |
|---|---|---|
| Mérédith | Mérédith is a rare spelling of Meredith, written with an acute accent and recorded about 245 times, mostly in France. | 245 |
Names that peaked alongside Meredith
These names rose and fell in the same era, which is why they tend to sound like they belong together.
Parents who like Meredith also like
Names whose popularity has risen and fallen in step with Meredith over the last century — the same taste, a different name.
1 nickname for Meredith
Each one is a name in its own right — the figure underneath is how it is doing today, so you can see which short forms are rising and which have faded.
Meredith in other languages
The same name as it is spelled elsewhere — not shortenings, and not different names that merely sound alike. Each one has its own record here.
- Other forms
- Forms we hold no single language for — some are used across several, some are simply spelled differently.
- Meridith
Sibling names for Meredith
Names from the same era that won't rhyme or share an initial with Meredith — the two things that make a sibling set grate.
Common questions about Meredith
What does the name Meredith mean?
Great lord or sea lord — the second element is settled, the first disputed.
Was Meredith a man's name?
Entirely, in Wales, for around a thousand years. It remains masculine in Welsh use.
Why did it turn female?
Twentieth-century American use, the same route Ashley, Shirley and Evelyn took.
How popular is Meredith?
469th in the United States, and our data marks it stable.
Is Meredith a girl's or a boy's name?
Meredith is given almost entirely to girls in birth records.
How many syllables are in Meredith?
Meredith has 3 syllables.
What are the nicknames for Meredith?
Meredith is usually shortened to Merry.
Is Meredith a good name?
That is not something records can settle, but they can tell you what you would be choosing. Meredith currently ranks #469 in the United States. Its usage has held steady over the past decade. Everything else — how it sounds with your surname, who it reminds you of — is yours.