Madilyn
A feminine name of English origin meaning "high or exalted mound".
Name Census estimates that about 22,667 living Americans carry the first name Madilyn. It sits at #420 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Madilyn today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Madilyn births was 2008 (1,169 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Madilyn. 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 Madilyn with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Madilyn is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 14 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
23K
~ 1 in 15,121 Americans
Peak year
2008
1,169 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
2024 SSA rank
#420
Tracked since 1924
Census
Madilyn in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 16,440 people with the first name Madilyn, which placed it at #1,804 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
#1,804
National first-name rank
People counted
16K
16,440 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
5.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
80.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Madilyn
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Madilyn is White at 80.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (10.0%) and Two or More Races (5.1%). 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 Madilyn 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 Madilyn at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White80.6% · 13,258
- Hispanic or Latino10.0% · 1,640
- Two or more races5.1% · 831
- Black or African American2.2% · 356
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.4% · 237
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 118
Popularity
Madilyn: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Madilyn from the 1920s through to the 2020s, spanning 10 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 10,126 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Madilyn remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Madilyn 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 Madilyn during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Madilyns live
The SSA's state-level files cover 47 states and territories. Texas, California, Ohio recorded the most babies named Madilyn, while Delaware, Wyoming, Montana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 463 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Madilyn
Madilyn is a feminine given name of English origin, derived from the combination of the names Madison and Lynn. The name Madison itself can be traced back to the Old English surname "Maddi" or "Maddy," which was a pet form of the name Matthew, meaning "gift of God." The suffix "-son" was later added, creating the patronymic surname Madison.
On the other hand, Lynn is a gender-neutral name with multiple origins. It can be derived from the Old English word "linn" meaning aPoolOrWaterfall or the Celtic word "llyn" meaning a lake. Lynn was also used as a short form of names like Linden or Lynette.
The earliest recorded instance of the name Madilyn dates back to the late 20th century when it gained popularity as a combination of the two names Madison and Lynn. While the individual components have a longer history, the specific spelling and combination of "Madilyn" is relatively modern.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore variations of the name Madison or Lynn, but the name Madilyn itself is quite rare in historical records. One of the earliest recorded individuals with a similar name was Madeleine de Verchères (1678-1747), a French-Canadian heroine who defended her family's fort against an attack by the Iroquois in 1692.
Another notable figure was Madeleine L'Engle (1918-2007), an American writer best known for her young adult novel "A Wrinkle in Time." While her name was spelled slightly differently, it shares the same root as Madilyn.
In more recent times, Madelyn Pugh (1921-2011) was an American writer and producer who worked on popular television shows such as "I Love Lucy" and "The Lucy Show."
Madelyn Fernstrom (born 1943) is an American psychologist and author known for her work in the field of weight management and nutrition.
Madelyn Cain (born 1991) is an American actress and singer, best known for her role in the Netflix series "The OA."
While the name Madilyn may not have a long and storied history like some other names, its unique combination of elements from different sources contributes to its charm and distinctiveness. The name continues to grow in popularity, particularly in the United States, as parents seek out unconventional and creative names for their children.
People
Madilyn + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Madilyn 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
Madilyn: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Madilyn?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 22,667 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Madilyn 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 15,121 US residents.
Is Madilyn a common name?
We classify Madilyn 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, 22,958 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Madilyn most popular?
The single biggest year for Madilyn was 2008, when 1,169 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Madilyn is about 14 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Madilyn in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 16,440 people with the name Madilyn, or 5.44 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,804 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 Madilyn 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 Madilyn?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Madilyn appears almost entirely female. Of the 16,441 people counted with this name, 99.8% 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 Madilyn?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Madilyn is White at 80.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (10.0%) and Two or More Races (5.1%). 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 Madilyn most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Madilyn in the 2020 Census, accounting for 80.6% (13,258 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 Madilyn in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Madilyn a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Madilyn 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 Madilyn still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Madilyn 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 Madilyn 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 Madilyn?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.