Mecca
Mecca is given to both girls and boys: 25 girls and 69 boys were given it in 2025 (#5,181 among girls’ names and #2,121 among boys’, #3,713 among all names counting both); 3,118 Americans have been recorded with it since 1952 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026). Boys have outnumbered girls among babies named Mecca every year since 2021.
An estimated 3,050 Americans named Mecca and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 23 years old and half are between 7 and 34.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Mecca by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Mecca mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Mecca is “a unisex given name, mostly borne by women.”
From Arabic مَكَّة (Makka) of uncertain etymology. In American place names, in reference to the Arabian city.
/ˈmɛkə/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Mecca?
#5,181 among girls’ names, 2025
Mecca rose from #6,171 in 2015 to #5,181 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 11.8 to 15.6 per million.
164 babies in 2023, the peak
Mecca peaked in 2023, when 164 babies were given it (56 girls, #3,004 among girls’ names). The 94 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 57% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 25 | #5,181 | 69 | #2,121 |
| 2024 | 47 | #3,367 | 91 | #1,802 |
| 2023 | 56 | #3,004 | 108 | #1,617 |
| 2022 | 48 | #3,351 | 93 | #1,777 |
| 2021 | 40 | #3,780 | 68 | #2,123 |
| 2020 | 62 | #2,704 | 55 | #2,408 |
| 2019 | 46 | #3,428 | 51 | #2,573 |
| 2018 | 38 | #3,900 | 38 | #3,083 |
| 2017 | 37 | #4,046 | 47 | #2,656 |
| 2016 | 33 | #4,406 | 34 | #3,338 |
Every recorded year (65)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 21 | #6,171 | 32 | #3,486 |
| 2014 | 27 | #5,118 | 12 | #6,921 |
| 2013 | 18 | #6,923 | 11 | #7,371 |
| 2012 | 17 | #7,355 | 12 | #6,883 |
| 2011 | 15 | #8,062 | under 5 | |
| 2010 | 15 | #8,161 | 5 | #13,579 |
| 2009 | 23 | #6,023 | under 5 | |
| 2008 | 34 | #4,517 | 6 | #12,054 |
| 2007 | 29 | #5,051 | 5 | #13,710 |
| 2006 | 48 | #3,399 | under 5 | |
| 2005 | 41 | #3,622 | 6 | #11,006 |
| 2004 | 42 | #3,543 | 10 | #7,352 |
| 2003 | 36 | #3,848 | 5 | #12,095 |
| 2002 | 49 | #2,996 | 12 | #5,947 |
| 2001 | 48 | #2,995 | under 5 | |
| 2000 | 63 | #2,444 | 7 | #8,797 |
| 1999 | 77 | #2,028 | 10 | #6,337 |
| 1998 | 80 | #1,910 | 8 | #7,297 |
| 1997 | 66 | #2,122 | 10 | #5,937 |
| 1996 | 79 | #1,852 | 12 | #5,078 |
| 1995 | 89 | #1,660 | 7 | #7,517 |
| 1994 | 79 | #1,816 | under 5 | |
| 1993 | 59 | #2,226 | under 5 | |
| 1992 | 41 | #2,896 | under 5 | |
| 1991 | 34 | #3,260 | under 5 | |
| 1990 | 36 | #3,120 | under 5 | |
| 1989 | 24 | #4,074 | under 5 | |
| 1988 | 19 | #4,588 | under 5 | |
| 1987 | 25 | #3,587 | under 5 | |
| 1986 | 24 | #3,606 | under 5 | |
| 1985 | 32 | #2,909 | under 5 | |
| 1984 | 31 | #2,889 | under 5 | |
| 1983 | 32 | #2,757 | under 5 | |
| 1982 | 27 | #3,227 | under 5 | |
| 1981 | 36 | #2,598 | under 5 | |
| 1980 | 50 | #2,086 | under 5 | |
| 1979 | 36 | #2,559 | under 5 | |
| 1978 | 28 | #2,911 | under 5 | |
| 1977 | 42 | #2,201 | under 5 | |
| 1976 | 38 | #2,239 | under 5 | |
| 1975 | 43 | #2,042 | 6 | #5,220 |
| 1974 | 24 | #2,971 | under 5 | |
| 1973 | 30 | #2,485 | under 5 | |
| 1972 | 25 | #2,797 | under 5 | |
| 1971 | 30 | #2,521 | under 5 | |
| 1970 | 21 | #3,170 | under 5 | |
| 1969 | 18 | #3,276 | under 5 | |
| 1968 | 13 | #3,922 | under 5 | |
| 1966 | 7 | #5,618 | under 5 | |
| 1965 | 5 | #7,173 | under 5 | |
| 1964 | 6 | #6,512 | under 5 | |
| 1962 | 5 | #7,211 | under 5 | |
| 1961 | 8 | #5,143 | under 5 | |
| 1960 | 6 | #6,146 | under 5 | |
| 1952 | 5 | #6,126 | under 5 |
Ranks: girls’ names and boys’ names ranked separately in each year’s SSA file; “under 5” is a year SSA did not list the name for that sex.
Is Mecca a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 3,118 Americans recorded as Mecca, 73% are girls and 27% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Mecca: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Mecca, and how old are they?
3,050 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 3,118 Americans ever recorded as Mecca. The median Mecca alive today is 23 years old; half are between 7 and 34.
The 2020 Census counted 1,915 people named Mecca (1,613 women and girls, 302 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 2,340 born in the U.S. The Census count is 18% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 25 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 390 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 669 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 769 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,200 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Mecca born?
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 10 | #3,378 | 0.4× |
| Texas | 9 | not ranked | 0.2× |
Where Mecca is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Mecca is most over-represented in New Jersey: since 1952 it was given 1.9 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Mecca with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 5,269 babies since 1880, Mecca is the most given (59% of them). In 2025 it was given to 94 of their 119 babies (79%), again the most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Mecca
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Mecca and names like it
- Compare Mecca and MekaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sMecca peaked in 2023.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Mecca since 1910.
- The top names of 2023The year the most babies were named Mecca.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Mecca alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with MMost given first.