Maggie

← Back to The Colonial Americas

Girl · English and Scottish pet form of a Greek name

Maggie

Say it: MAG-ee

Try it with your surname

Meaning

A pet form of Margaret, from Greek margarites 'pearl', itself probably borrowed from an Eastern language.

Certainscholars agree on this meaning.

Used as a full given name in the US since the 1800s, and popular again from the 1990s.

Its wave through time

Fading since the 1880s

In the United States

0246818801900192019401960198020002020Peak 1880per 1,000 babies of that sex
  • 118,052 babies given this name since 1880
  • At its height in 1884, about 1 in 172 girls
  • 1,079 babies in 2020

Through the ages

  1. Victorian and Belle Époque1837 to 1914
  2. The Modern Age1880 to today

Used by

AmericanEnglishScottishIrish

The family of the name

Other spellings: Maggy

Famous bearers

  • Maggie Smith, British actress
  • Maggie L. Walker, African American banker and teacher

Names worth a look

Where this comes from

  • United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
  • National census records of the 19th and 20th centuries
  • United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source

Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.

Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.