Humanverse

Maddax vs Madison

American parents have registered 427,675 Madisons since 1880, against 582 Maddaxes. Madison is still ahead, with 4,963 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Maddax against Madison, 1880 to 2025 0 6k 12k 18k 24k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Maddax 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

Madison 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 Madison had 6,281.

Side by side

  Maddax Madison
Total US births 582427,675
Most in one year 3822,292
Babies in 2025 154,963
Estimated living today 580421,000
Median age today 1120
Peak year 20202001
Best rank 3,074th boys2nd girls
Rank in 2025 5,861st40th
First recorded 20031880
Girls / boys 13 / 569419,806 / 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.

Which name is older

Half of the Madisons 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 Madison.