Meagan is a Welsh form of Megan, a pet form of Margaret, ultimately meaning "pearl."
Meagan is a Welsh-rooted variant of Megan, itself a beloved diminutive of Margaret — a name descending from the Greek "margaritēs," meaning pearl. The name traveled through Latin and Old French before taking root across the British Isles, where Welsh speakers reshaped Margaret into the intimate, musical Megan. The spelling Meagan reflects an Irish and American blending, adding a soft phonetic elegance that distinguishes it from its Welsh cousin while preserving the same melodic core.
The name carries centuries of quiet dignity. Saint Margaret of Antioch was among the most venerated saints of the medieval world, and Margaret as a royal name — worn by queens of Scotland, England, and Denmark — gave the entire family of diminutives a noble inheritance. By the 20th century, Megan and Meagan had fully shed their formal predecessor, standing confidently on their own.
In the latter decades of the 20th century, Meagan surged in popularity across the United States, Canada, and Australia, riding the broader wave of Welsh names that captured anglophone parents' imagination. The name has a warm, approachable energy — playful but not frivolous, classic but not stiff. Today it sits in the comfortable zone of names that feel simultaneously familiar and distinctive, loved by a generation now raising children of their own.