Name Awesome

Meta

Girls' name

Variant of Mette

Meta has been given to 6,211 babies in the U.S. since 1880. 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 1892, with 127 recorded.

Babies named Meta, 2021

1 in 339,000

Meta over time, 1880–2025

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Meta: meaning, origin, and history

Variant of Mette

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Meta means

Meta is a variant of Mette.

Origin, language, and formation

Meta is used in Danish, Estonian and German.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Mette, Margaret and Margarete.

Pronunciation and spelling

In German, Meta is pronounced /ˈmeːta/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 6,211 girls were recorded with the name Meta between 1880 and 2021. Its highest annual count was 127 in 1892; its best national rank was #217 in 1884.

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 Meta?

Meta 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 339,000
10 of 3,389,958 births
Among girls only
1 in 164,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2021
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
234,975 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Meta 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 234,975 children born in 2021 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Meta. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Metas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Meta was born before 1916 — so the typical Meta is around 109 today.

Median birth year
1916
About 109 years old
Biggest decade
1890s
17.8% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
2.6%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
1,253
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1890s — 17.8% of all recorded uses (1,104).

Is Meta 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 1892 (127)
Years since peak
133
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
42.0% average annual change
Best rank ever
#217
1884

Spellings of Meta

Meta is not the most common spelling — Megan is, with 14.0% against Meta's 0.20%.

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 Meta is used

Across 1910–2025, Meta was most concentrated in Wisconsin — about 1 in 25,000 girls, against 1 in 110,762 across all states with data. It was least common in Virginia (1 in —).

04 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Wisconsin1 in 25,000
  2. 2Minnesota1 in 50,000
  3. 3North Carolina1 in 50,000
  4. 4New York1 in 50,000
  5. 5South Carolina1 in 50,000
  6. 6District of Columbia1 in 100,000
  7. 7Iowa1 in 100,000
  8. 8Illinois1 in 100,000

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. Meta has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Meta around the world

Where Meta 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
    2009–2020
    #3,117
    in 2020
  • Ireland
    2016–2016
    #868
    in 2016
  • France
    1900–2001
    #4,193
    in 2001
  • South Australia
    1956–1956
    #540
    in 1956

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Central Statistics Office, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CSO, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0.

Notable people named Meta

People whose public names include Meta, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Meta in other languages

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

NetaMettaMargareta

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

Meta 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
#217
1884
Peak year
1892
127 that year
First recorded
1880
Last recorded
2021
All-time count
6,211
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Meta

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

LetaAletaZetaRetaNetaOletaGretaVetaCletaMettaVioletaMetzliJulietaMettieOnetaMetztliFletaRhetaWanetaAlmetaAnetaLavetaLoretaLeeta

Names with a curve like Meta

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

HettieLidaBessMittieMathildaNelleHuldaMyrtieTennieAugustaLydaMayme

Sibling names for Meta

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 Meta

Top names of 1892, Meta's peak yearThe 1890s in fullOther names that peaked in 1884More old lady namesGirls' names starting with MShort Danish Girl Names