Matilyn
Feminine · “Germanic maht and hild”
Germanic women's names are war names. Matilda is might and battle, Hilda is battle, Gertrude is spear-strength, Brunhild is armor-battle, Griselda is grey battle. There is no gentler stock for women in early Germanic naming: the elements are the same weapons and fights that the men's names use.
How old is the name Matilyn?
Matilyn first appears in US birth records in 1994 — 31 years ago. The typical Matilyn alive today was born around 2009, making them about 16 years old. About 900 people named Matilyn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Matilyn most popular?
Matilyn peaked in 2008, reaching #2831 nationally. Today it ranks #8860, 6,029 places below that high. See the whole 2008 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Mahthildis to Matilyn
The story of Matilyn
The martial character of Germanic women's names is easy to miss because the names are now familiar and their elements are dead vocabulary. Hild, battle, gives Hilda, Matilda, Brunhild, Clotilde and Mathilde. Gunn, war, gives Gunhild and the Scandinavian Gunnar. Ger, a spear, gives Gertrude, spear-strength. Sieg, victory, gives Sieglinde and Sigrid. Nothing about the naming system distinguished women's elements from men's: a compound was assembled from a shared stock, and the sex was marked by the ending rather than by the content. That is why a great many European women's names, taken apart, describe fighting. Matilda has been carried by an empress who fought a civil war for the English throne, by the wife of William the Conqueror, and by a great many others, and it means nothing but power and combat.
Meaning
Germanic maht and hild, might and battle
From the Germanic elements maht, might or strength, and hild, battle, giving Mahthildis and then Matilda. Both halves are martial. Matilyn joins the front of the name to the American -lyn ending, which descends from Welsh llyn, a lake, through the name Lynn. It peaks in 2008.
How the name formed
- Mahthildis
- Matilda
- Matilyn
Related forms: Matilda · Mathilde
Pronouncing Matilyn
MAT-ih-lin
Three syllables, stress on the first. The middle and final vowels are both reduced. Matilyn, Matilynn and Mattilyn are homophones.
Nicknames for Matilyn
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
- 1994
- Most girls named
- 200863 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2831reached in 2008
- Change vs 2024
- 0.0%11 in 2025, from 11
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.
Matilyn in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Matilda in English — related form
- Mathilde in German — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Missouri, South Carolina.
Matilyns among us
people named Matilyn are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 146,115 born in 2025 was named Matilyn
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Matilyn
- #8860
- Matilyn on the 2025 chart
- #926
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Matilyn went to 11 girls in 2025, but Mattilyn and Mattilynn are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 34, which makes it the 926th most-given girls’ name of the year — 7,934 places above the chart.
- Mattilyn15
- Matilyn11
- Mattilynn8
About 1 girl in 47,273 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 146,115 for Matilyn 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 Pedro test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Matilyn's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Pedro climbed just as high around 1932, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Pedro's path sketches the road Matilyn is walking now.
Matilyn 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
Matilyn beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Matilyn in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Both Germanic elements have settled meanings.
- Mattie and Tilly are two established short forms.
- Matilda is available as a full formal version.
- Matilda and Madelyn are both far more common.
- Several spellings of the compound circulate.
- The -lyn ending carries no meaning.
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Matilyn
Feminine · #8860 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Matilyns 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 Matilyn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Matilyn?
- Matilyn is one of 3 recorded spellings. Mattilyn is the more common one — 15 births in 2025 against 11 for Matilyn.
- How popular is the name Matilyn in 2025?
- Matilyn ranks #8860 among US girl names in 2025, with 11 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Matilyn?
- About 1 in every 146,115 US girls born in 2025 was named Matilyn — 11 in all.
- Will my child share the name Matilyn with classmates?
- Matilyn will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Matilyn
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Lida#8860 · Lauretta#8860 · Dot#8860 · Bonita#8860 · Benita#8860 · Trixie#8860 · Adna#8860 · Sue#8860
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Matilyn? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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