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Meridith

Girls' name

Great lord, through Meredith

Meridith has been given to 2,684 babies in the U.S. since 1939. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1971, with 104 recorded.

Babies named Meridith, 2021

1 in 565,000

Meridith over time, 1880–2025

GirlsBoys
05010015018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Meridith: meaning, origin, and history

Great lord, through Meredith

Welsh

What Meridith means

Meridith belongs to the name family reached through Meridith → Meredith. Its meaning is “great lord”.

Origin, language, and formation

Meridith is used in English. Its origins include Welsh.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Meredith.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 2,652 girls were recorded with the name Meridith between 1939 and 2021. Its highest annual count was 104 in 1971; its best national rank was #1,128 in 1971.

In the United States, 32 boys were recorded with the name Meridith between 1917 and 1951. Its highest annual count was 6 in 1922; its best national rank was #3,843 in 1946.

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 Meridith?

Meridith had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2021, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2021
1 in 565,000
6 of 3,389,958 births
Among girls only
1 in 273,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2021
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
391,624 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Meridith 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 2021 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 391,624 children born in 2021 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Meridith. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Meridiths were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Meridith was born before 1979 — so the typical Meridith is around 46 today.

Median birth year
1979
About 46 years old
Biggest decade
1970s
33.5% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
13.0%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
2,534
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1970s — 33.5% of all recorded uses (888).

Is Meridith 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
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 1971 (104)
Years since peak
54
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
28.2% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,128
1971

Spellings of Meridith

Meridith is not the most common spelling — Meredith is, with 93.9% against Meridith's 3.2%.

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 Meridith is used

Across 1910–2025, Meridith was most concentrated in Georgia — about 1 in 100,000 girls, against 1 in 172,298 across all states with data. It was least common in Virginia (1 in —).

01 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Georgia1 in 100,000
  2. 2Illinois1 in 100,000
  3. 3Massachusetts1 in 100,000
  4. 4New Jersey1 in 100,000
  5. 5New York1 in 100,000
  6. 6Ohio1 in 100,000
  7. 7Texas1 in 100,000
  8. 8Alabama1 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. Meridith has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Meridith around the world

Where Meridith 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
    2011–2011
    #5,785
    in 2011
  • South Australia
    1945–1985
    #671
    in 1985

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Meridith in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Meridith. Linked forms have their own page here.

Meredith

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Meridith by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#1,128
1971
Peak year
1971
104 that year
First recorded
1939
Last recorded
2021
All-time count
2,652
Count in 2025
Under 5

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#3,843
1946
Peak year
1922
6 that year
First recorded
1917
Last recorded
1951
All-time count
32
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Meridith

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

MeredithMercedezMerrittMerrillMerrileeMeridethMeradithMerrilyMeridianMerlynMerdithMeridaMerridithMerandaMerleneMerilynMerariMerredithLillithMerissaMerrickMerrilynMerlinMeredyth

Names with a curve like Meridith

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Meridith, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

JennifferShawnnaJameyLaticiaTarraKeenaShandraJeniShaneKrissyDeliciaKeesha

Sibling names for Meridith

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 Meridith

Top names of 1971, Meridith's peak yearThe 1970s in fullOther names that peaked in 1971Girls' names starting with MUncommon Welsh Girl Names