Meaning of Last Name

Meaning: "Son of Maud"

Traditionally, Madison commonly Maddison (double-D) in the Northeastern England, was a surname, meaning son of Maud (Reaney & Wilson, 1997). "Maud" is a pet form of "Matilda". Madison has become a rather popular female given name in the United States. According to the Social Security Administration's statistics, from a practically non-existent girl's name before 1985, Madison rose to being the second most popular name, after Emily, given to female babies in 2001.[http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/index.html] This phenomenal rise in popularity has been attributed to the 1984 movie Splash, where Daryl Hannah played a mermaid who adopted the name "Madison" in her human form after seeing a street sign for Madison Avenue. When this selection was made, Tom Hanks's character initially protests: "But Madison isn't a name!" The name has begun to see a decline in popularity in the past few years, slipping to #7 by 2009. Madison is also a male given name. According to the Social Security Administration, Madison can be found within the top 1,000 names for boys up until about 1952. Madison returned to the top 1,000 ranked boy's names in 1987, remaining there through 1999, and it also was the 858th most common boys' name in 2004, but it remains uncommon as a male given name in the United States.