Maddison
A feminine name meaning "child of a mighty warrior".
Name Census estimates that about 23,099 living Americans carry the first name Maddison. It sits at #487 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Maddison today is around 16 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Maddison births was 2009 (1,167 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Maddison. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Maddison with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Maddison is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 53 boys registered with the name since 1880.
- • Maddison is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 16 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
23K
~ 1 in 14,838 Americans
Peak year
2009
1,167 babies that year
Average age
16
years old
2017 SSA rank
#487
Tracked since 1985
Census
Maddison in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 19,063 people with the first name Maddison, which placed it at #1,648 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#1,648
National first-name rank
People counted
19K
19,063 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
6.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
73.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Maddison
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Maddison is White at 73.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (11.6%) and Black (8.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Maddison described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Maddison at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White73.0% · 13,908
- Hispanic or Latino11.6% · 2,203
- Black or African American8.2% · 1,567
- Two or more races5.4% · 1,030
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 179
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.9% · 176
Gender
Gender distribution for Maddison
Out of the 23,401 babies given the name Maddison since 1880, 99.8% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Maddison as a male name
- Ranked #11,642 in 2017
- 6 male births in 2017
- Peak: 1998 (9 births)
Maddison as a female name
- Ranked #487 in 2024
- 627 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2009 (1,167 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Maddison appears almost entirely female. Of the 19,066 people counted with this name, 99.3% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Maddison: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Maddison 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 9,329 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Maddison remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Maddison 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 Maddison during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Maddisons live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. Texas, California, Florida recorded the most babies named Maddison, while Delaware, District of Columbia, South Dakota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 430 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Maddison
The name Maddison originated from the English surname Madison, which itself derived from the medieval name "Mathiuson." This name can be traced back to the Latin name "Matthias," meaning "gift of God." The name Maddison gained popularity as a given name in the 20th century.
In ancient times, the name Matthias was commonly used in Christian communities, with reference to the apostle who replaced Judas Iscariot after the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The name Matthias appears in the Biblical book of Acts, where the apostle is chosen by casting lots.
The earliest recorded use of the name Maddison as a given name dates back to the late 19th century in the United States. One of the earliest known individuals with the name was Maddison Ellsworth (1864-1948), an American educator and school administrator from New York.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Maddison. These include Maddison Peet (1872-1936), an American author and journalist known for her works on American Indian culture. Another notable figure was Maddison Kilburn (1903-1983), an Australian cricketer who played domestic cricket for Western Australia in the 1920s and 1930s.
In the field of entertainment, Maddison Jaizani (born 1992) is a French-Tunisian model and actress who has appeared in several films and television shows. Maddison Phillips (born 1994) is an American actress best known for her role in the television series "The Michael J. Fox Show."
Additionally, Maddison Gough (born 1997) is an Australian rules footballer who plays for the North Melbourne Football Club in the Australian Football League Women's (AFLW) competition.
People
Maddison + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Maddison 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
Maddison: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Maddison?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 23,099 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Maddison 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 14,838 US residents.
Is Maddison a common name?
We classify Maddison as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 23,401 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Maddison most popular?
The single biggest year for Maddison was 2009, when 1,167 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Maddison is about 16 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Maddison in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 19,063 people with the name Maddison, or 6.31 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,648 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Maddison in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Maddison?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Maddison appears almost entirely female. Of the 19,066 people counted with this name, 99.3% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Maddison?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Maddison is White at 73.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (11.6%) and Black (8.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Maddison most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Maddison in the 2020 Census, accounting for 73.0% (13,908 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Maddison in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Maddison a female name?
Yes, 99.8% of people registered as Maddison 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.
Is Maddison still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Maddison in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Maddison can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
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.
How common is the name Maddison?
For a quick modern take, check how many Americans are named Maddison on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.