Madalyn vs Madison
American parents have registered 427,675 Madisons since 1880, against 23,222 Madalyns. Madison is still ahead, with 4,963 babies in 2025.
Babies given each name, 1880–2025
Madalyn Madison
Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.
Who was ahead
Of the 145 years in which either name was published, Madison for 122 years and Madalyn for 23 years. The lead changed hands 28 times.
- 1880–1907 Madison ahead, apart from one short spell
- 1908–1910 Madalyn ahead
- 1913–1917 Madison ahead
- 1921–1923 Madalyn ahead
- 1927–1937 Madison ahead
- 1941–1943 Madalyn ahead
- 1944–1947 Madison ahead
- 1948–1950 Madalyn ahead
- 1951–2025 Madison ahead, apart from 3 short spells
16 shorter spells of a year or two are folded into the spans above rather than listed separately.
Side by side
| Madalyn | Madison | |
|---|---|---|
| Total US births | 23,222 | 427,675 |
| Most in one year | 1,144 | 22,292 |
| Babies in 2025 | 273 | 4,963 |
| Estimated living today | 21,000 | 421,000 |
| Median age today | 19 | 20 |
| Peak year | 2008 | 2001 |
| Best rank | 292nd girls | 2nd girls |
| Rank in 2025 | 946th | 40th |
| First recorded | 1899 | 1880 |
| Girls / boys | 23,222 / 0 | 419,806 / 7,869 |
A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.
Where each one is strongest
- Madalyn Wisconsin (1.8×), Indiana (1.7×), Minnesota (1.5×)
- Madison Nevada (2.1×), Alaska (1.7×), Utah (1.6×)
How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.
Both names abroad
Countries whose statistics office publishes both names, so the comparison can be made somewhere other than the United States.
| Country | Madalyn | Madison |
|---|---|---|
| England and Wales | 214 | 18,835 |
Every spelling a country files separately is added together, over whatever years that country publishes — which is not the same range in any two of them, so read the columns against each other and not the rows.
Compare something else
Related comparisons
Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Madalyn and Madison.