Gender: Girl
Meaning: Son of Matthew; son of Maud
Origin: English surname — a variant of Mathieson (son of Matthew) or Maddison
Popularity: Ranked #46 in 2024 with 4,563 babies born.
History: Madison has one of the most unusual origin stories in baby naming. It was almost entirely a surname — most famously that of President James Madison — until the 1984 film Splash, in which a mermaid picks the name off a New York City street sign. Within years it surged from near-zero to become one of the top girls' names in America, reaching #2 in 2001. It is a textbook case of pop culture's power to create naming trends overnight, and it defined the surname-for-girls movement.
Name length: 7 letters
How common is Madison? About 1 in 724 babies born in 2024 were named Madison, or roughly 12.6 per day in the United States.
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