Humanverse

Maddax vs Madeleine

American parents have registered 45,737 Madeleines since 1880, against 582 Maddaxes. Madeleine is still ahead, with 679 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Maddax against Madeleine, 1880 to 2025 0 400 800 1.2k 1.6k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Maddax Madeleine

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

Madeleine has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1881 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2020, when Maddax had 37 and Madeleine had 784.

Side by side

  Maddax Madeleine
Total US births 58245,737
Most in one year 381,424
Babies in 2025 15679
Estimated living today 58039,000
Median age today 1120
Peak year 20201998
Best rank 3,074th boys217th girls
Rank in 2025 5,861st454th
First recorded 20031881
Girls / boys 13 / 56945,722 / 15

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.

Which name is older

Half of the Madeleines alive today are over 20; half the Maddaxes are over 11. That is 9 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Maddax and Madeleine.