MeehanvsMeghanTell them apart

Which to use

“Meehan” and “Meghan” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#39,910
“Meehan” frequency rank
#21,280
“Meghan” frequency rank
61190
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Meehan Meghan
Definition A surname from Irish; variant form Meegan. A female given name from Welsh, a pseudo-Irish spelling of the Welsh Megan.

Where the eye mixes Meehan and Meghan

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. Meehan (CVVCVC) and Meghan (CVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
Meehan
6 ch
Meghan

Why the eye confuses Meehan with Meghan

A purely visual mix-up. Meehan (/ˈmiː.hæn/) and Meghan (/ˈmɛɡən/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - e in “Meehan” becomes g in “Meghan”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61190, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Meehan is recorded at frequency rank #39,910, classified as aname, pronounced /ˈmiː.hæn/. Meghan is at rank #21,280, tagged as aname, pronounced /ˈmɛɡən/.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 61190, this pair ranks #95,654 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Meehan vs Meghan

Shared letters: aehmn. Private to "Meehan": -. Private to "Meghan": g.

"Meehan" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "Meghan" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Meehan ← emehan · meeahn · meehann · meehhan · meehna · mehan · mehean · mmeehan
  • Meghan ← emghan · megahn · megghan · meghann · meghhan · meghna · mehgan · mgehan

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Meehan" for "Meghan" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈmiː.hæn/ versus /ˈmɛɡən/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "Meehan" or "Meghan"?
"Meghan" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,280 in our English list, against #39,910 for "Meehan". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Meehan" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Meghan" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #95,654 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Meehan" and "Meghan" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "McEwan vs Meehan". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #95,654 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list