Madgie
Feminine · “pearl”
Madgie is a pet form of a pet form: Margaret became Mag, Mag became Madge, and Madge became Madgie. Every step made it smaller and warmer, and the same Mag gave English the name of a bird.
How old is the name Madgie?
Madgie first appears in US birth records in 1887 — 138 years ago. The typical Madgie alive today was born around 1921, making them about 104 years old. Fewer than a hundred people named Madgie are estimated to be alive in the US today — a true one-of-a-kind name.
When was the name Madgie most popular?
Madgie peaked in 1887, reaching #1036 nationally. See the whole 1887 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From margaritēs to Madgie
The story of Madgie
Medieval English shortened Margaret to Mag and Maggie, and Mag was so common that it was lent to a noisy bird: the magpie was first the pie, from Latin pica, and then Mag's pie, and Shakespeare's Macbeth still calls them maggot-pies. Madge grew from Mag, and its spelling follows a strict English rule: after a short vowel the sound of j is written dge, as in badge and bridge, while after a long vowel it is plain ge, as in page. Madgie keeps that dge and adds the pet ending.
Meaning
pearl, through Margaret
A diminutive of Madge, the English pet form of Margaret, which comes through Greek margaritēs, pearl.
How the name formed
- margaritēs
- Margaret
- Mag
- Madge
- Madgie
Related forms: Maggie · Megan
Pronouncing Madgie
MAJ-ee
Stress on the first syllable; the dge sounds like j.
Nicknames for Madgie
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
- 1887
- Most girls named
- 191723 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1036reached in 1887
- Change vs 1946
- 0.0%5 in 1947, from 5
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.
Madgie in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Maggie in Scots — related form
- Megan in Welsh — related form
Madgies among us
Fewer than a hundred people named Madgie are estimated to be alive in the US today — a true one-of-a-kind name.
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Madgie sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- It has a clear, centuries-long history inside the Margaret family.
- It is warm and easy to say.
- It is almost never given now, so it is distinctive.
- It reads as a nickname, and some will assume a longer legal name behind it.
- Its sound is close to the word magic and to Maggie, so it will be misheard.
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Madgie
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Madgies are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. Fewer than a hundred people named Madgie are estimated to be alive in the US today — a true one-of-a-kind name.
- How popular is the name Madgie in 2025?
- Madgie is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Madgie with classmates?
- Madgie will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More M names
The most-given names starting with M, all years combined.
Mary#125 · Margaret#112 · Michelle#465 · Melissa#419 · Maria#87 · Martha#712 · Marie#617 · Mildred#1962
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Madgie? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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