Humanverse

Maddax vs Madeline

American parents have registered 207,630 Madelines since 1880, against 582 Maddaxes. Madeline is still ahead, with 3,086 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Maddax against Madeline, 1880 to 2025 0 1.5k 3k 4.5k 6k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Maddax Madeline

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

Madeline has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2020, when Maddax had 37 and Madeline had 2,800.

Side by side

  Maddax Madeline
Total US births 582207,630
Most in one year 385,869
Babies in 2025 153,086
Estimated living today 580158,000
Median age today 1122
Peak year 20201998
Best rank 3,074th boys50th girls
Rank in 2025 5,861st81st
First recorded 20031880
Girls / boys 13 / 569207,385 / 245

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 Madelines alive today are over 22; half the Maddaxes are over 11. That is 11 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 Madeline.