Madison
Madison was given to 4,945 girls in 2025, #40 among girls’ names; 427,675 Americans have been recorded with it since 1880 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 420,000 Americans named Madison and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 21 years old and half are between 15 and 26.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Madison by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Madison mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Madison is “a female given name transferred from the surname, popular since 1984 when it appeared as the name of a mermaid in the film Splash.” Its etymology gives the sense “Maud” (Maddy).
Also “a male given name transferred from the surname.”
Usually derived from Mathieson (Matthew + -son), occasionally from Middle English Maddy (“Maud”) + -son. In the movie Splash, its use as a given name derives from Manhattan’s Madison Avenue.
/ˈmædɪsən/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Madison?
#40 among girls’ names, 2025
Madison fell from #11 in 2015 to #40 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 5.7 to 3.1 per 1,000.
22,292 babies in 2001, the peak
Madison peaked in 2001, when 22,292 babies were given it (22,166 girls, #2 among girls’ names). The 4,963 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 22% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 4,945 | #40 | 3.1 |
| 2024 | 4,581 | #45 | 2.8 |
| 2023 | 5,179 | #37 | 3.2 |
| 2022 | 5,507 | #34 | 3.4 |
| 2021 | 5,964 | #29 | 3.6 |
| 2020 | 6,253 | #23 | 3.9 |
| 2019 | 6,304 | #26 | 3.8 |
| 2018 | 7,103 | #22 | 4.2 |
| 2017 | 7,910 | #17 | 4.6 |
| 2016 | 9,057 | #15 | 5.1 |
Every recorded year (46)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 10,107 | #11 | 5.7 |
| 2014 | 10,333 | #9 | 5.8 |
| 2013 | 10,605 | #9 | 6.0 |
| 2012 | 11,417 | #9 | 6.5 |
| 2011 | 12,406 | #8 | 7.1 |
| 2010 | 13,196 | #8 | 7.4 |
| 2009 | 15,257 | #7 | 8.3 |
| 2008 | 17,047 | #6 | 9.0 |
| 2007 | 17,968 | #5 | 9.3 |
| 2006 | 18,635 | #3 | 9.8 |
| 2005 | 19,578 | #3 | 10.6 |
| 2004 | 20,628 | #3 | 11.2 |
| 2003 | 20,201 | #3 | 11.1 |
| 2002 | 21,774 | #2 | 12.1 |
| 2001 | 22,166 | #2 | 12.3 |
| 2000 | 19,968 | #3 | 11.0 |
| 1999 | 18,054 | #7 | 10.2 |
| 1998 | 17,787 | #9 | 10.1 |
| 1997 | 15,189 | #10 | 8.7 |
| 1996 | 13,412 | #15 | 7.7 |
| 1995 | 9,775 | #29 | 5.6 |
| 1994 | 6,263 | #51 | 3.5 |
| 1993 | 4,384 | #78 | 2.4 |
| 1992 | 3,165 | #107 | 1.7 |
| 1991 | 2,471 | #128 | 1.3 |
| 1990 | 1,407 | #203 | 0.74 |
| 1989 | 1,226 | #222 | 0.67 |
| 1988 | 824 | #299 | 0.46 |
| 1987 | 749 | #326 | 0.43 |
| 1986 | 646 | #366 | 0.38 |
| 1985 | 301 | #625 | 0.17 |
| 1984 | 42 | #2,325 | 0.02 |
| 1981 | 6 | #9,834 | under 0.01 |
| 1975 | 6 | #8,614 | under 0.01 |
| 1971 | 5 | #9,059 | under 0.01 |
| 1970 | 5 | #8,773 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Madison a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 427,675 Americans recorded as Madison, 98% are girls and 2% boys. In 2025 it went to 4,945 girls and 18 boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Madison: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Madison, and how old are they?
420,000 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 427,675 Americans ever recorded as Madison. The median Madison alive today is 21 years old; half are between 15 and 26.
The 2020 Census counted 360,351 people named Madison (355,609 women and girls, 4,742 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 390,816 born in the U.S. The Census count is 8% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 145 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 507 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 396 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 45,800 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 280,000 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 93,700 |
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 Madison born?
The states with the most babies named Madison are Texas, California and New York, with 30% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 565 | #35 | 0.9× |
| California | 528 | #44 | 0.6× |
| New York | 370 | #19 | 0.8× |
| Florida | 327 | #33 | 1.0× |
| New Jersey | 232 | #16 | 0.8× |
| Georgia | 192 | #23 | 1.2× |
| Pennsylvania | 191 | #36 | 1.1× |
| North Carolina | 181 | #39 | 1.2× |
| Illinois | 168 | #41 | 0.7× |
| Virginia | 158 | #28 | 1.1× |
Where Madison is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Madison is most over-represented in Kentucky: since 1910 it was given 1.2 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 Madison 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 494,224 babies since 1880, Madison is the most given (87% of them). In 2025 it was given to 4,963 of their 6,903 babies (72%), 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 Madison
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 Madison and names like it
- Compare Madison and MaddisonBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sMadison peaked in 2001.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Madison since 1910.
- From surnamesWiktionary’s origin for Madison: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2001The year the most babies were named Madison.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Madison alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with MMost given first.