Marguerite

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Girl · Greek, through Latin

Marguerite

Say it: mar-guh-REET

Try it with your surname

Meaning

From Greek margaritēs 'pearl', probably borrowed from Persian.

Certainscholars agree on this meaning.

A queens' name from the 13th century on, popular again in France since the 2000s.

Its wave through time

Fading since the 1890s

In the United States

0123418801900192019401960198020002020Peak 1897per 1,000 babies of that sex
  • 93,740 babies given this name since 1880
  • At its height in 1897, about 1 in 322 girls
  • 71 babies in 2020

Through the ages

  1. The High and Late Middle Ages1100 to 1450
  2. The Renaissance1400 to 1600
  3. The Colonial Americas1500 to 1800
  4. The Age of Revolutions1750 to 1837
  5. Victorian and Belle Époque1837 to 1914
  6. The Modern Age1880 to today

Used by

FrenchQuébécoisAcadianCajun

The family of the name

Other spellings: Margueritte

EnglishMargaret
DutchMargriet
ItalianMargherita
GermanMargarete
SpanishMargarita

Famous bearers

  • Marguerite de Navarre, writer and queen
  • Marguerite Yourcenar, novelist
  • Marguerite Bourgeoys, founder of a teaching order in New France

Names worth a look

Where this comes from

  • Royal and noble genealogies
  • The Paris tax rolls of the 1290s
  • Colonial records of the Americas
  • Parish baptism registers
  • Calendars of saints and name days
  • 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.