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Mairead

#4,316 in 2025Girls' name

Form of Margaret

Mairead has been given to 1,402 babies in the U.S. since 1967. In 2025 it ranked #4,316 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 2002, with 59 recorded.

Babies named Mairead, 2025

1 in 100,000

Mairead over time, 1880–2025

Girls
020406018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Mairead: meaning, origin, and history

Form of Margaret

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Mairead means

Mairead is a form of Margaret.

Meaning behind the documented name family

The name developed through Mairead → Margaret. The family’s meaning is “pearl”, recorded in English with the source elements margarítēs.

Origin, language, and formation

Mairead is used in Scottish Gaelic.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Margaret.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Scottish Gaelic, Mairead is pronounced /ˈmaɾʲət̪/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 1,402 girls were recorded with the name Mairead between 1967 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 59 in 2002; its best national rank was #2,464 in 1997.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #4,958 in 2020 to #4,316 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #5,593 in 2015 to #4,316 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Mairead?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 100,000
33 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 48,700
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#4,316
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
69,634 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Mairead sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 69,634 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Mairead. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Maireads were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Mairead was born before 2004 — so the typical Mairead is around 21 today.

Median birth year
2004
About 21 years old
Biggest decade
2000s
32.8% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
61.7%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
1,402
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2000s — 32.8% of all recorded uses (460).

Is Mairead rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
+1,993
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
+642
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
+1,277
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
1.38×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
55.9%
Peak was 2002 (59)
Years since peak
23
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
22.6% average annual change
Best rank ever
#2,464
1997

Spellings of Mairead

Mairead is not the most common spelling — Maira is, with 68.4% against Mairead's 15.1%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Mairead is used

Across 1910–2025, Mairead was most concentrated in Massachusetts — about 1 in 25,000 girls, against 1 in 98,898 across all states with data. It was least common in Pennsylvania (1 in —).

04 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Massachusetts1 in 25,000
  2. 2New York1 in 50,000
  3. 3Connecticut1 in 100,000
  4. 4New Jersey1 in 100,000
  5. 5California1 in —
  6. 6Illinois1 in —
  7. 7Pennsylvania1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Mairead has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Mairead around the world

Where Mairead ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    1996–2025
    #3,705
    in 2025
  • Scotland
    1974–2025
    #359
    in 2025
  • Northern Ireland
    1997–2022
    #305
    in 2022
  • Ireland
    1964–2025
    #381
    in 2025
  • Canada
    1996–2011
    #2,307
    in 2011
  • South Australia
    1984–2009
    #818
    in 2009

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland, Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, Central Statistics Office, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS, NRS, NISRA data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CSO, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Mairead by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#4,316
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 642
Best rank ever
#2,464
1997
Peak year
2002
59 that year
First recorded
1967
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
1,402
Count in 2025
33

Names similar to Mairead

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

MailaniMaiseyMaisynMaishaMailynMaisleyMaisonMairinMaizeyMailenMaimunaMaizieMaileeMaimounaMaizyMaijaMaiyahMaileyMaiahMailynnMaizeeSineadMailaMaida

Sibling names for Mairead

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Mairead

Top names of 2002, Mairead's peak yearThe 2000s in fullOther names that peaked in 1997Girls' names starting with MIrish Girl Names