The Baby Name Wizard

Reader Contributions

Contribute to, or edit, this collection of community wisdom on the name Margaret!

Comments and insights on the name Margaret: | Edit

Share what you know!

Personal experiences with the name Margaret: | Edit

Creative, observant, independent, wise, spontaneous, intuitive, confident, multi-tasking, insight, enjoys nature, and enjoys learning.

A name to grow into. Growing up I took a lot of abuse for my name. People would ask me why my parents named me with such a stupid old fashioned name. Or,not use my name, but call me one of the myriad of nicknames for Margaret. Peggy or Marge were common choices and I would be treated very rudely for insisting my name was Margaret. My family will sometime refer to me as Marg or Margie (with a hard 'g'), but my parents specifically named us so our names could not be shortened to a diminutive. At one time I wished I had a more common name that wasn't subject to ridicule, but after becoming an adult I realize it is a name of dignity, strength and and royalty.

This is my given name although I've always been called Molly - so Margaret feels like it belongs to this whole other person. I've never really liked it, as a kid or as an adult, and I'm happy to have my "nickname" as my "real" name.

So many people say that they are teased for their name, but I, with the name Margaret, am not teased at all.

Nicknames for Margaret: | Edit

Meg, Peg, Margie, Maggie, Madge, Maisie, Greta, Gretchen, Megan, May, Maj, Meta, Marge, Peggy, Margo, Daisy, Marty, Marti,Mags,Mag, Molly, Margie, Rita, Marnie, Marg(with a hard 'g'), Margie (with a hard 'g')

Meanings and history of the name Margaret: | Edit

Note 1:
Margaret comes from Greek and means pearl.
Note 2:
Origin is said to be - Persian, (and/or)Greek, (and/or)Latin.
MEANING: more widely as "Pearl"; however also as "a Daughter (and/or) a Child of light".

Famous real-life people named Margaret: | Edit

Margaret Atwood, author (she goes by Peggy)
Margaret "Maggie" Ruth Gyllenhaal, actress
Margaret Bourke-White, American photographer
Margaret Cho, comedienne
Margaret "Maggie" Grace, actress (Lost)
Margaret Mead, anthropologist
Margaret Mitchell, author (Gone with the Wind)
Margaret More Roper, daughter of Sir Thomas More, reputed to be one of the most learned women in Tudor England
Margaret Thatcher, first female Prime Minister in the UK (1979-1990)
Princess Margaret Rose, sister of Queen Elizabeth II, Countess of Snowdon
Margaret Smith Taylor, First Lady and wife of Zachary Taylor
Margaret Heffernan, Irish businesswoman & owner of Dunnes Stores
Margaret Rutherford, actress
Queens Margrethe I & Margrethe II of Denmark

Margaret in song, story & screen: | Edit

"Are You There God? It's Me Margaret," a book by Judy Blume
There are three generations of Margarets in the book "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott: Marmee, her oldest daughter (Meg), and Meg's oldest daughter (Daisy). ("'He's to be named John Laurence, and the girl Margaret after mother and grandmother. We shall call her Daisy so as not to have two Megs ... said Amy with auntlike interest.'")
Meg (Margaret) Murry, from the book A Wrinkle in Time (and others) by Madeleine L'Engle
"The Abduction of Margaret", song by the Decemberists
"Won't Want for Love (Margaret in the Taiga)", song by the Decemberists
"Margaret in Captivity", song by the Decemberists
"Margaret vs. Pauline," song by Neko Case
"Margaret," song by Jill Sobule
Meggie (Margaret) from the Inkheart series
"It's Me Again, Margaret", comedy song by Ray Stevens
"Marnie," the movie by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Tippi Hedren. Hedren's character's name was Margaret; Marnie was her nickname.
Margaret, bossy neighbor girl in the Dennis the Menace comic strip
Margaret Tate, in the hit 2009 romantic comedy The Proposal.