Maddy
Feminine · “of Magdala”
Maddy is a short form with two quite different parents: Madeline, from a town on the Sea of Galilee, and Madison, an English surname meaning son of Maud.
How old is the name Maddy?
Maddy first appears in US birth records in 1946 — 79 years ago. The typical Maddy is a kid of about 12 — this name's wave is very recent. About 900 people named Maddy are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Maddy most popular?
Maddy peaked in 2024, reaching #2775 nationally. Today it ranks #3780, 1,005 places below that high. See the whole 2024 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Magdalene to Maddy
The story of Maddy
Mary Magdalene took her name from her town, and Magdalene became Madeleine in French and Madeline in English. Quite separately, Madison is a patronymic on Maud and became an American girls' name in the 1980s. Both produce Maddy, which has been registered as a name in its own right in American records since the twentieth century.
Meaningscholars disagree
of Magdala, or son of Maud
Madeline descends from Magdalene, the woman from Magdala, a fishing town whose name means a tower. Madison is an English surname built on Maud, itself from the Germanic Mathilda, mighty in battle. The two are unrelated.
How the name formed
- Magdalene
- Madeline
- Maddy
Related forms: Maddie · Madeleine · Madison
Pronouncing Maddy
MAD-ee
Two syllables, first stressed. Maddy and Maddie are said identically.
Nicknames for Maddy
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
- 1946
- Most girls named
- 202461 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2775reached in 2024
- Change vs 2024
- −36.1%39 in 2025, from 61
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.
Maddy in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Maddie in English — spelling variant
- Madeleine in French — related form
- Madison in English — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida.
Maddys among us
people named Maddy are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 41,212 born in 2025 was named Maddy
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Maddy
- #3780
- Maddy on the 2025 chart
- #867
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Maddy went to 39 girls in 2025, but Madi, Maddi and Mady are the same name said out loud. Together the 4 spellings went to 93, which makes it the 867th most-given girls’ name of the year — 2,913 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 17,282 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 41,212 for Maddy itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Klaudia test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Maddy's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Klaudia climbed just as high around 1997, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Klaudia's path sketches the road Maddy is walking now.
Maddy sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Maddy is headed
Maddy looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 46% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds. Its history is short or jumpy, though, so read this as a sketch rather than a promise.
Low 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.
Maddy beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Maddy in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Two documented ancestries, one from a real town and one from a real surname.
- Warm and immediately friendly, and understood by everyone.
- Madeline and Madison both stand behind it as fuller formal options.
- Maddie is the more common spelling and will be written for her.
- The Mad clip is an ordinary English adjective and children will use it.
- It reads as a nickname to most people, which may matter on a formal document.
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What they receive
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Maddy
Feminine · #3780 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Maddys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 900 people named Maddy are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Maddy?
- Maddy is the most-used spelling in US records — 39 of the 93 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Madi, Maddi and Mady.
- How popular is the name Maddy in 2025?
- Maddy ranks #3780 among US girl names in 2025, with 39 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Maddy?
- About 1 in every 41,212 US girls born in 2025 was named Maddy — 39 in all.
- Will my child share the name Maddy with classmates?
- Maddy will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Maddy
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Kimberlyn#3780 · Jonah#3780 · Aine#3780 · Jakayla#3780 · Shriya#3780 · Analeigh#3780 · Daliyah#3780 · Jamia#3780
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Maddy? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Maddy and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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