Mafalda
A feminine diminutive form of the German name Matilda meaning "battle mighty".
Name Census estimates that about 31 living Americans carry the first name Mafalda. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Mafalda today is around 99 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Mafalda births was 1925 (85 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Mafalda. 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 Mafalda with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Mafalda is about 99 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Mafaldas were born before 1937.
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Mafalda. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
31
~ 1 in 11,056,592 Americans
Peak year
1925
85 babies that year
Average age
99
years old
1937 SSA rank
#2,265
Tracked since 1902
Census
Mafalda in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 547 people with the first name Mafalda, which placed it at #19,370 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
#19,370
National first-name rank
People counted
547
547 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
75.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Mafalda
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mafalda is White at 75.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (15.7%) and Black (4.6%). 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 Mafalda 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 Mafalda at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White75.9% · 415
- Hispanic or Latino15.7% · 86
- Black or African American4.6% · 25
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.7% · 15
- Two or more races0.7% · 4
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 2
Popularity
Mafalda: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Mafalda from the 1900s through to the 1930s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 674 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Mafalda 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 Mafalda during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Mafaldas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 7 states and territories. New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts recorded the most babies named Mafalda, while Illinois, Connecticut, Rhode Island recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 123 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Mafalda
The name Mafalda is of Portuguese origin, derived from the Germanic words "magen" meaning "strength" and "hild" meaning "battle." It first appeared in the Middle Ages, around the 12th century, in Portugal and neighboring regions of Spain.
Mafalda was a popular name among the Portuguese nobility during the medieval period. One of the earliest recorded bearers of the name was Mafalda of Portugal, a Portuguese infanta born in 1195. She was the daughter of King Sancho I of Portugal and later became Queen of Castile through her marriage to King Henry I of Castile.
In the 13th century, the name Mafalda was also found in religious texts and manuscripts from the Iberian Peninsula. Saint Mafalda, a Portuguese nun who lived in the 13th century, was known for her piety and charitable works. She was canonized by the Catholic Church in the late 16th century.
During the Renaissance, the name Mafalda spread to other parts of Europe, particularly Italy and France, through trade and cultural exchange. One notable figure from this period was Mafalda Pio di Savoia, an Italian noblewoman born in 1472, who was a prominent patron of the arts and literature.
In the 19th century, the name Mafalda gained popularity in Brazil, introduced by Portuguese immigrants. Mafalda Sampaio, a Brazilian writer and educator born in 1873, was a prominent figure in the Brazilian literary scene of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Another notable figure was Mafalda of Savoy, an Italian princess born in 1902, who became Queen of Bulgaria through her marriage to King Boris III. She played a significant role in promoting cultural exchange between Italy and Bulgaria.
Throughout history, the name Mafalda has been associated with strength, resilience, and nobility, reflecting its Germanic roots and its connection to royal and noble families in various parts of Europe and South America.
People
Mafalda + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Mafalda 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
Mafalda: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Mafalda?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 31 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Mafalda 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 11,056,592 US residents.
Is Mafalda a common name?
We classify Mafalda as "Very Rare". It ranks above 47% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,279 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Mafalda most popular?
The single biggest year for Mafalda was 1925, when 85 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Mafalda is about 99 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Mafalda in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 547 people with the name Mafalda, or 0.18 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #19,370 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 Mafalda 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 Mafalda?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Mafalda appears almost entirely female. Of the 550 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 Mafalda?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mafalda is White at 75.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (15.7%) and Black (4.6%). 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 Mafalda most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Mafalda in the 2020 Census, accounting for 75.9% (415 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 Mafalda in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Mafalda a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Mafalda 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 Mafalda still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Mafalda 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 Mafalda 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 are called Mafalda?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.