Maddi
A feminine diminutive of Madeleine, meaning "high tower" or "woman from Magdala".
Name Census estimates that about 549 living Americans carry the first name Maddi. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Maddi today is around 17 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Maddi births was 2008 (29 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Maddi. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
People living today
549
~ 1 in 624,325 Americans
Peak year
2008
29 babies that year
Average age
17
years old
2024 SSA rank
#7,794
Tracked since 1987
Popularity
Maddi: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Maddi from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 205 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Maddi remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Maddi by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Maddi during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Maddis live
Origin
Meaning and history of Maddi
The name Maddi is derived from the Hebrew name Mattathia, meaning "gift of God." It has its roots in ancient Judaic culture, tracing back to the 2nd century BC during the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire.
Mattathia was a Jewish priest who led the rebellion against the oppressive rule of Antiochus IV Epiphanes. His name is mentioned in the books of 1 Maccabees and 2 Maccabees, which are part of the Catholic and Orthodox biblical canon.
The earliest recorded instance of the name Maddi is found in the 12th century, when it was used as a variant of the name Mattathia. One notable figure from this time was Maddi ibn Ismail al-Bukhari, a renowned Islamic scholar and hadith collector who lived from 810 to 870 AD.
During the Middle Ages, the name Maddi was particularly popular in Scandinavia and parts of Europe. One famous bearer of the name was Maddi Eriksson, a 13th-century Swedish nobleman and member of the Bjälbo dynasty.
In the 16th century, Maddi Malafanti was an Italian painter and architect who worked in the Renaissance style. He was known for his frescoes and architectural designs in various churches and palaces throughout Italy.
Another notable figure was Maddi Gudmundsdottir, an Icelandic poet and writer who lived from 1633 to 1696. She is considered one of the most important literary figures in Iceland during the 17th century.
In more recent times, Maddi Kekich was an American professional baseball player who played for the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 1950s. He was born in 1927 and had a career spanning from 1949 to 1957.
People
Maddi + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Maddi as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with M
Other first names starting with M with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Maddi: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Maddi?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 549 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Maddi going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 624,325 US residents.
Is Maddi a common name?
We classify Maddi as "Very Rare". It ranks above 85.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 556 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Maddi most popular?
The single biggest year for Maddi was 2008, when 29 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Maddi is about 17 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Maddi a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Maddi in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.