Maddie
Feminine · “A short form”
Maddie is the short form English speakers have been clipping off Madeleine and Madeline for centuries — and it now arrives on birth certificates by itself. Behind it stands Magdala, a village on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, whose name traveled through Greek and medieval French before English mouths shortened it to two easy syllables. It is one of those names that needs no spelling out loud and no explaining.
How old is the name Maddie?
Maddie first appears in US birth records in 1893 — 132 years ago. The typical Maddie is a kid of about 12 — this name's wave is very recent. About 5,900 people named Maddie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Maddie most popular?
Maddie peaked in 2023, reaching #835 nationally. Today it ranks #925, 90 places below that high. See the whole 2023 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Magdalēnē to Maddie
The story of Maddie
The older road begins with Magdalēnē in Greek, meaning 'of Magdala' — a place name, not a personal one. Medieval French turned it into Madeleine, which crossed into England and was pronounced so loosely that it produced the separate English word 'maudlin'. English kept the full name for the register and Maddie for the house, a division of labor that has held for a very long time. The second road is unrelated: Madison, an English surname built from Maud, moved to first-name use for American girls in the twentieth century and brought a fresh crowd of Maddies with it.
Meaning
A short form — most often of Madeleine/Madeline, 'of Magdala', and also of Madison
Maddie has no separate meaning of its own; it inherits whichever longer name it stands for. The Madeleine line traces to Greek Magdalēnē, 'of Magdala', a town by the Sea of Galilee. Madison is a different road entirely: an English surname meaning 'son of Maud', which became a girls' given name in the United States in the twentieth century. Maddie also serves Matilda and Magdalena.
How the name formed
- Magdalēnē
- Magdalena
- Madeleine
- Madeline
- Maddie
Related forms: Madeleine · Magdalena · Maddalena · Mădălina · Magdolna · Magdalini
Pronouncing Maddie
MAD-ee
Two syllables, stress on the first, the vowel of 'mad'. It is read correctly on sight by essentially anyone who speaks English.
Nicknames for Maddie
Moderate
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
- 1893
- Most girls named
- 2023328 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #835reached in 2023
- Change vs 2023
- −14.0%282 in 2025, from 328
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.
Maddie in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Madeleine in French — related form
- Magdalena in Spanish — related form
- Maddalena in Italian — related form
- Mădălina in Romanian — related form
- Magdolna in Hungarian — related form
- Magdalini in Greek — transliteration
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Tennessee.
Maddies among us
people named Maddie are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 5,700 born in 2025 was named Maddie
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 Kinsey test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Maddie's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Kinsey climbed just as high around 1998, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Kinsey's path sketches the road Maddie is walking now.
Maddie 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 Maddie is headed
Maddie looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 19% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
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.
Maddie beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Maddie in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Immediately readable and spellable by anyone who hears it — no repeating, no correcting.
- Already carries an established formal partner: Madeleine, Madeline or Madison can go on paperwork if a longer version is ever wanted.
- Recognized the same way across English-speaking countries, with sister forms — Madeleine, Magdalena, Maddalena — familiar across much of Europe.
- Short, two-syllable, and easy to say alongside almost any surname or middle name.
- It is a nickname that has stepped out on its own, so people will ask what it is short for. Some parents register Madeleine or Madison and use Maddie daily; others put Maddie on the certificate and accept the question.
- She may be the only Maddie in her class while still sitting near a Madelyn, a Madison and a Madeline. The Mad- sound is far more common than this exact spelling.
- Maddie and Maddy compete constantly, so expect the occasional wrong letter on cards and class lists.
- Most people carrying this spelling are still young, which means it reads as a child's name for now — worth a moment's thought about how it will sound on a résumé, though Madeleine sits ready for that job.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Maddie
Feminine · #925 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Maddies are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 5,900 people named Maddie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Maddie in 2025?
- Maddie ranks #925 among US girl names in 2025, with 282 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Maddie?
- About 1 in every 5,700 US girls born in 2025 was named Maddie — 282 in all.
- Will my child share the name Maddie with classmates?
- Maddie will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Maddie
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ivey#925 · Elisabeth#925 · Clare#924 · Etta#928 · Winifred#922 · Emberlynn#928 · Brittany#928 · Emmeline#922
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Maddie? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Maddie and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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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
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