Marge

Meaning of Marge

As a feminine given name, Marge constitutes a diminutive derivative of Margaret, itself originating from the Greek word margarítēs (meaning “pearl”), and has been employed both as an affectionate abbreviation and, since the early twentieth century, as an autonomous appellation within Anglo-American onomastic practice. Its phonetic profile—rendered as /mɑːdʒ/ in British English and /mɑrdʒ/ in American English—presents a monosyllabic contraction preserving the foundational morpheme “marg-” while omitting the subsequent segments of its prototypical antecedent. State-level birth-registration data from Illinois illustrate its historical trajectory, revealing modest annual occurrences in the 1910s, a progressive increase culminating in a mid-century prominence around 1940–1942, and a gradual decline in usage leading into the 1960s. In sociolinguistic terms, Marge evokes mid-twentieth-century classicism and unadorned familiarity, reflecting broader trends in which diminutive forms of traditional names attained independent status within English-language naming conventions.