- published: 31 Jan 2014
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Margaret is a female first name, derived via French (Marguerite) and Latin (Margarita) from Greek Margarites, derived from the noun margaron meaning 'pearl'. The Greek is probably related to the Sanskrit मञ्जरी mañjarī meaning 'pearl' or 'cluster of blossoms.'
Margaret has been an English name since the 11th century, and remained popular throughout the Middle Ages. It became less popular between the 16th century and 18th century, but became more common again after this period, becoming the second most popular name in the United States in 1903. Since this time, it has become less common, but was still the ninth most common name for women of all ages in the United States as of the 1990 census.
Margaret has a large number of diminutive forms in many different languages.
Alternate forms of Margaret, including short forms and pet names, include:
Margaret Chan Fung Fu-chun, OBE, JP (born August 21 1947 in Hong Kong) is a Hong Kong Chinese and Canadian physician, who serves as the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) for 2006–17. Chan was elected by the Executive Board of WHO on 8 November 2006, and was endorsed in a special meeting of the World Health Assembly on the following day. Chan has previously served as Director of Health in the Hong Kong Government (1994–2003), representative of the WHO Director-General for Pandemic Influenza and WHO Assistant Director-General for Communicable Diseases (2003–2006). As of 2014, she is ranked as the 30th most powerful woman in the world according to Forbes.
Margaret Chan was initially trained as a Home Economics teacher at the Northcote College of Education in Hong Kong. She then earned her BA degree in Home Economics and her MD degree at the University of Western Ontario in 1973 and 1977, respectively, as well as her MSc (Public Health) degree at the National University of Singapore in 1985. Chan completed the Program for Management Development (PMD 61) at Harvard Business School in 1991. In 1997, she was given the distinction for the Fellowship of the Faculty of Public Health Medicine of the Royal College of Physicians of the United Kingdom and was also appointed as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II.