Madigan
An Irish feminine name meaning "little good maid" or "child of the plains".
Name Census estimates that about 951 living Americans carry the first name Madigan. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Madigan today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Madigan births was 2002 (67 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Madigan. 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
951
~ 1 in 360,415 Americans
Peak year
2002
67 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2024 SSA rank
#10,728
Tracked since 1992
Census
Madigan in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 967 people with the first name Madigan, which placed it at #12,750 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
#12,750
National first-name rank
People counted
967
967 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
89.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Madigan
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Madigan is White at 89.6%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (5.2%) and Hispanic (3.4%). 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 Madigan 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 Madigan at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White89.6% · 866
- Two or more races5.2% · 50
- Hispanic or Latino3.4% · 33
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.0% · 10
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 5
- Black or African American0.3% · 3
Popularity
Madigan: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Madigan from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 540 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Madigan 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 Madigan during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Madigans live
The SSA's state-level files cover 9 states and territories. New York, Illinois, Colorado recorded the most babies named Madigan, while Wisconsin, Texas, Ohio recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 11 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Madigan
The name Madigan is of Irish origin, derived from the Gaelic name "Madagán," which means "little dog" or "little hound." This name has its roots in early medieval Ireland, dating back to the 5th or 6th century CE.
Madigan was a relatively common name among the Irish, particularly in the regions of Connacht and Munster. It is believed to have been a diminutive form of the name "Máedóc," which was derived from the Old Irish word "máed," meaning "lord" or "chief."
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Madigan can be found in the Annals of the Four Masters, a chronicle of medieval Irish history. The annals mention a man named Madigan O'Conor, who lived in the 14th century and was a member of the O'Conor dynasty, a prominent family in Connacht.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Madigan. One of the most famous was Sir John Madigan (1801-1875), an Irish-born soldier and politician who served as the Governor of Western Australia from 1868 to 1875. Another notable Madigan was Mary Madigan (1905-1986), an American actress and vaudeville performer who appeared in several films in the 1930s and 1940s.
In the literary world, Francis Madigan (1918-1998) was an American author and journalist who wrote several novels and non-fiction works, including the critically acclaimed memoir "Borrowed Tides" (1961). Additionally, Edward Madigan (1936-1994) was an American politician who served as the United States Secretary of Agriculture from 1991 to 1993 under President George H. W. Bush.
Finally, one cannot discuss the name Madigan without mentioning Joseph Madigan (1891-1935), an Irish revolutionary and politician who played a significant role in the Irish War of Independence and the Irish Civil War. He served as a member of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and later became a member of the Dáil Éireann, the Irish parliament.
People
Madigan + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Madigan 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
Madigan: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Madigan?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 951 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Madigan 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 360,415 US residents.
Is Madigan a common name?
We classify Madigan as "Very Rare". It ranks above 89.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 964 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Madigan most popular?
The single biggest year for Madigan was 2002, when 67 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Madigan is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Madigan in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 967 people with the name Madigan, or 0.32 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #12,750 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 Madigan 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 Madigan?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Madigan leans strongly female. 921 people counted with this name were female (95.7%), compared with 41 male bearers (4.3%). 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 Madigan?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Madigan is White at 89.6%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (5.2%) and Hispanic (3.4%). 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 Madigan most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Madigan in the 2020 Census, accounting for 89.6% (866 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 Madigan in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Madigan a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Madigan 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 Madigan still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Madigan 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 Madigan 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 many people have the name Madigan?
See how many Americans are named Madigan on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.