Mads
A Danish masculine name derived from the name Matthias or Matthew.
Name Census estimates that about 223 living Americans carry the first name Mads. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Mads today is around 6 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Mads births was 2021 (30 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Mads. 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 Mads with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
223
~ 1 in 1,537,015 Americans
Peak year
2021
30 babies that year
Average age
6
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,932
Tracked since 2011
Census
Mads in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 290 people with the first name Mads, which placed it at #30,183 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
#30,183
National first-name rank
People counted
290
290 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
86.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Mads
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mads is White at 86.6%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (6.2%) and Hispanic (4.1%). 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 Mads 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 Mads at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White86.6% · 251
- Two or more races6.2% · 18
- Hispanic or Latino4.1% · 12
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.4% · 4
- Black or African American1.0% · 3
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 2
Popularity
Mads: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Mads from the 2010s through to the 2020s, spanning 2 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 134 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Mads 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 Mads during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Mads
Mads is a masculine given name of Danish and Norwegian origin. It is a shortened form of the name Matthias, which derives from the Hebrew name Mattityahu, meaning "gift of God." The name Mads gained popularity in Scandinavia during the Middle Ages.
In ancient times, Matthias was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ, as mentioned in the New Testament. He was chosen to replace Judas Iscariot after the latter's betrayal and death. This biblical reference contributed to the widespread use of the name among early Christians.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Mads can be found in the Danish Chronicles, where it was mentioned as the name of a 12th-century Danish nobleman. In the 13th century, Mads Erengisleson served as the Bishop of Roskilde, one of the most influential ecclesiastical positions in medieval Denmark.
During the Renaissance period, Mads Kok (1528-1592) was a notable Danish philosopher and professor at the University of Copenhagen. He played a significant role in promoting humanism and the study of classical literature in Denmark.
In the 18th century, Mads Gregers Lornsen (1760-1842) was a prominent Norwegian philologist and linguist. He made significant contributions to the study of Old Norse literature and the preservation of Norwegian dialects.
More recently, Mads Mikkelsen (born in 1965) is a Danish actor renowned for his roles in films such as "Casino Royale," "Hannibal," and "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story." He has received numerous accolades for his performances and is considered one of Denmark's most accomplished contemporary actors.
Other notable figures with the name Mads include Mads Andersen (1906-1978), a Danish painter and sculptor known for his abstract expressionist works, and Mads Torgersen (born in 1965), a Norwegian computer programmer and software architect who has contributed to the development of the C# programming language.
People
Mads + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Mads 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
Mads: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Mads?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 223 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Mads 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 1,537,015 US residents.
Is Mads a common name?
We classify Mads as "Very Rare". It ranks above 75.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 225 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Mads most popular?
The single biggest year for Mads was 2021, when 30 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Mads is about 6 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Mads in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 290 people with the name Mads, or 0.10 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #30,183 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 Mads 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 Mads?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Mads leans strongly male. 254 people counted with this name were male (85.8%), compared with 42 female bearers (14.2%). 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 Mads?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mads is White at 86.6%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (6.2%) and Hispanic (4.1%). 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 Mads most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Mads in the 2020 Census, accounting for 86.6% (251 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 Mads in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Mads a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Mads in the SSA data are male. 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 Mads still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Mads 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 Mads 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 share the name Mads?
Want to know how many Americans are named Mads? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.