Madden
Masculine · “descendant of Madadhán”
Madden is given to both — 7,682 boys and 1,551 girls since 1880. See Madden as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Madden comes out of east Galway, where the Ó Madadháin were one of the ruling families of the old kingdom of Uí Maine before English clerks flattened the name into two blunt syllables. It rhymes with sadden and gladden, so nobody has to be told twice how to say it. As a first name it is new; as a family name it has been written down for many hundreds of years.
How old is the name Madden?
Madden first appears in US birth records in 1997 — 28 years ago. The typical Madden is a kid of about 10 — this name's wave is very recent. About 7,600 people named Madden are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Madden most popular?
Madden peaked in 2011, reaching #544 nationally. Today it ranks #675, 131 places below that high. See the whole 2011 chart.
Madden appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From Madadhán to Madden
The story of Madden
The Ó Madadháin were a sept of Uí Maine, in the country around the Galway–Offaly borders, and their name appears in Irish records long before English spelling reduced it to Madden. Under English administration the Ó and the interior syllables fell away, leaving the compact form used today, and Irish emigration carried it across the Atlantic in the nineteenth century as a family name in the ordinary way. Its turn as a given name is much more recent, arriving with the broader American habit of moving surnames to the front — the same current that lifted Madison and Maddox. It is one name for either child: a surname does not split into a boys' road and a girls' road, and here it hasn't.
Meaning
descendant of Madadhán — a pet form of the Irish word madadh, 'hound'
Madadhán was an Irish personal name built from madadh, 'dog' or 'hound', with a diminutive ending; the surname Ó Madadháin means the descendants of that man. The related sept name Ó Madagáin gives us Madigan by the same route.
How the name formed
- Madadhán
- Ó Madadháin
- Ó Madáin
- Madden
Related forms: Ó Madadháin · Ó Madáin · Madigan · Maddin · Maddan
Pronouncing Madden
MAD-en
Two syllables, stress on the first, rhyming with sadden. Americans, Irish and British speakers all land in the same place, and the spelling gives no trouble on a first reading.
Nicknames for Madden
High
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1997
- Most boys named
- 2012471 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #544reached in 2011
- Change vs 2024
- +2.3%402 in 2025, from 393
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Madden in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ó Madadháin in Irish — same name
- Ó Madáin in Irish — spelling variant
- Madigan in Irish / English — related form
- Maddin in English — spelling variant
- Maddan in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Utah.
Maddens among us
people named Madden are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 4,249 born in 2025 was named Madden
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Darrius test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Madden's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Darrius climbed just as high around 1989, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Darrius's path sketches the road Madden is walking now.
Madden is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Madden is headed
Madden should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Madden beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Madden in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Reads correctly the first time in English — no spelling-out, no correction, because the surname is already familiar in print.
- A documented Irish line behind it: an identifiable sept, an original personal name, and a cousin surname in Madigan.
- Works unchanged for a boy or a girl; nothing in the name itself has to be adjusted either way.
- Several ready short forms — Mads, Maddie — so a child has options without anyone inventing one.
- For a great many Americans the word Madden means the football video game and the broadcaster it was named for. That association is strong, mostly affectionate, and unlikely to fade soon — it is the first thing many people will say.
- The first syllable is the word mad, which older children notice. It rarely goes further than a joke, but it is there in the spelling.
- Far more Madden boys than Madden girls are being born, so a girl called Madden will meet the assumption that she is a boy on class lists and forms — correctable, but recurring.
- Surname-first-names arrive in waves. This one is riding a recent one, which means the name may end up quietly marking the decade a child was born in.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Madden to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Madden? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Madden
Masculine · #675 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Maddens are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 7,600 people named Madden are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Madden in 2025?
- Madden ranks #675 among US boy names in 2025, with 402 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Madden?
- About 1 in every 4,249 US boys born in 2025 was named Madden — 402 in all.
- Will my child share the name Madden with classmates?
- Madden will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Madden
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Houston#675 · Zaid#675 · Vincenzo#674 · Benicio#672 · Gerardo#678 · Wilson#672 · Salem#679 · Trevor#679
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Madden? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Madden and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Or jump into a head-to-head
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle