Maddie
A feminine diminutive of the name Madeline, derived from the Old German name Mahtild, meaning "mighty battle".
Name Census estimates that about 5,546 living Americans carry the first name Maddie. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Maddie today is around 15 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Maddie births was 2023 (327 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Maddie. 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 Maddie with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Maddie is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 15 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
5.5K
~ 1 in 61,802 Americans
Peak year
2023
327 babies that year
Average age
15
years old
2024 SSA rank
#837
Tracked since 1893
Census
Maddie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 12,440 people with the first name Maddie, which placed it at #2,145 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
#2,145
National first-name rank
People counted
12K
12,440 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
4.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
82.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Maddie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Maddie is White at 82.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (7.0%) and Two or More Races (3.6%). 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 Maddie 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 Maddie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White82.5% · 10,268
- Hispanic or Latino7.0% · 876
- Two or more races3.6% · 453
- Black or African American3.5% · 430
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.6% · 320
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 93
Popularity
Maddie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Maddie from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 2,103 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Maddie remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Maddie 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 Maddie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Maddies live
The SSA's state-level files cover 37 states and territories. Texas, California, Tennessee recorded the most babies named Maddie, while South Dakota, Oregon, Nevada recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 96 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Maddie
The name Maddie is a diminutive form of the name Madeleine, which has its origins in the Late Latin name Magdalena. Magdalena itself is derived from the ancient Greek name Magdalene, meaning "woman from Magdala." Magdala was an ancient city located in modern-day Israel, and the name was popularized by Mary Magdalene, a prominent figure in the New Testament of the Bible.
The name Madeleine gained widespread popularity across Europe during the Middle Ages, particularly in France, where it was often associated with aristocratic families. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Madeleine can be found in the 12th-century French epic poem "The Song of Roland," where a character named Madeleine is mentioned.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Madeleine or its variations. One of the most famous Madeleines was Madeleine de Souvré (1599-1676), a French noblewoman who served as the Marquise de Sablé and was renowned for her literary salon in Paris. Another noteworthy Madeleine was Madeleine de Scudéry (1607-1701), a prominent French novelist and literary figure during the Baroque period.
In the 19th century, the name Madeleine gained further prominence with Madeleine Sophie Barat (1779-1865), a French nun who founded the Society of the Sacred Heart, a Catholic religious order dedicated to the education of girls. Additionally, Madeleine Albright (1937-2022), the first female United States Secretary of State, was born Marie Jana Korbelová but later adopted the name Madeleine.
The diminutive form Maddie emerged as a popular nickname for Madeleine, particularly in English-speaking countries. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Maddie can be found in the works of the 19th-century English novelist Charles Dickens, who used the name for several characters in his novels.
Over the centuries, the name Maddie has been borne by various notable individuals, including Maddie Rooney (born 1997), an American ice hockey goaltender who led the United States women's hockey team to a gold medal at the 2018 Winter Olympics. Another notable Maddie is Maddie Ziegler (born 2002), an American dancer, actress, and model who rose to prominence as a cast member on the reality TV show "Dance Moms."
People
Maddie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Maddie 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
Maddie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Maddie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 5,546 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Maddie 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 61,802 US residents.
Is Maddie a common name?
We classify Maddie as "Rare". It ranks above 96.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 5,966 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Maddie most popular?
The single biggest year for Maddie was 2023, when 327 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Maddie is about 15 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Maddie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 12,440 people with the name Maddie, or 4.12 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,145 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 Maddie 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 Maddie?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Maddie appears almost entirely female. Of the 12,448 people counted with this name, 99.5% 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 Maddie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Maddie is White at 82.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (7.0%) and Two or More Races (3.6%). 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 Maddie most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Maddie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 82.5% (10,268 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 Maddie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Maddie a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Maddie 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 Maddie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Maddie 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 Maddie 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 named Maddie?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.