Madisen
Feminine · “English surname”
The -sen ending is Danish. Scandinavian patronymics were frozen into surnames by law in the nineteenth century, and Denmark and Norway settled on -sen where Sweden and England used -son. Madisen therefore writes an English name with a Danish ending, borrowing a patronymic system to disguise a patronymic.
How old is the name Madisen?
Madisen first appears in US birth records in 1986 — 39 years ago. The typical Madisen alive today was born around 2002, making them about 23 years old. About 5,000 people named Madisen are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Madisen most popular?
Madisen peaked in 2000, reaching #653 nationally. Today it ranks #8362, 7,709 places below that high. See the whole 2000 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Matilda to Madisen
The story of Madisen
The English -son and the Danish -sen do the same job and diverged for administrative rather than linguistic reasons. When Denmark required fixed surnames in 1828 and Norway in 1923, the spelling in use in those countries was standardized as -sen; Sweden settled on -sson with a double s; England had frozen its patronymics centuries earlier as -son. All three descend from the same word. What is interesting about the American respelling is that it reaches for a foreign patronymic ending to hide an English one. The reader's eye no longer catches the word son, but the structure is identical and the name still means what it meant. The same instinct produces Madisyn, Madyson and Maddisen, each removing the visible morpheme by a different route, and all of them homophones.
Meaning
English surname, son of Maud
Madison is a patronymic surname from Maud, a Norman form of Matilda, from Germanic maht and hild, might and battle. The -sen spelling is the Danish and Norwegian patronymic ending, standard in Petersen, Jensen and Andersen. Madisen substitutes it for the English -son, which changes nothing audible and removes the visible English word. It peaks in 2000.
How the name formed
- Matilda
- Maud
- Madison
- Madisen
Related forms: Madison · Madisyn
Pronouncing Madisen
MAD-i-sun
Three syllables, stress on the first. Identical to Madison; the final vowel is fully reduced and the spelling is inaudible.
Nicknames for Madisen
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
- 1986
- Most girls named
- 2000378 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #653reached in 2000
- Change vs 2024
- −40.0%12 in 2025, from 20
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.
Madisen in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Madison in English — spelling variant
- Madisyn in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas.
Madisens among us
people named Madisen are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 133,939 born in 2025 was named Madisen
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Madisen
- #8362
- Madisen on the 2025 chart
- #941
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Madisen went to 12 girls in 2025, but Madysen is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 19, which makes it the 941st most-given girls’ name of the year — 7,421 places above the chart.
- Madisen12
- Madysen7
About 1 girl in 84,593 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 133,939 for Madisen 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 Griselda test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Madisen's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Griselda climbed just as high around 1981, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Griselda's path sketches the road Madisen is walking now.
Madisen 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
Madisen beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Madisen in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The etymology is documented back to a Germanic compound.
- Maddie is one of the most usable short forms in English.
- The ending distinguishes it in writing from the standard spelling.
- Madison is overwhelmingly more common.
- At least five spellings of the same sound are in use.
- The respelling is inaudible and will be corrected constantly.
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What they receive
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Madisen
Feminine · #8362 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Madisens are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 5,000 people named Madisen are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Madisen?
- Madisen is the most-used spelling in US records — 12 of the 19 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Madysen.
- How popular is the name Madisen in 2025?
- Madisen ranks #8362 among US girl names in 2025, with 12 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Madisen?
- About 1 in every 133,939 US girls born in 2025 was named Madisen — 12 in all.
- Will my child share the name Madisen with classmates?
- Madisen will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Madisen
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Lona#8362 · Peggy#8362 · Leda#8362 · Margarette#8362 · Rella#8362 · Evalena#8362 · Vashti#8362 · Nona#8362
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Madisen? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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