Madison

Madison is a very popular name for baby girls in the United States at the moment. How'd that happen? We'll start with the beginning, and the beginning was Madeline, and/or Maud. Madeline and Maud have something in common other than starting with the letter M, and that is that they both have Maddie (or Maddy) as a nickname. When surnames were being invented, Madison came from Maddie--it may have originally designated a boy who was Maddie's son. Later, a baby's given name--particularly the middle name--was often the surname of a close relative, such as the mother's maiden name, or sometimes just to honor someone with that surname. In this case, Madison was sometimes given to babies to honor President James Madison. Many such surnames became popular names in particular for baby boys, but at some point in the 1900's, apparently people became bored with the "normal" names for girls, and started giving their daughters surnames as their given names. Madison, which had previously been sporadically given to boys, started becoming more popular as a name for baby girls in the U.S. in the 1980's, and has climbed steadily on the name charts since then, and is currently in the top 10 names for girls. Interestingly, it has also reappeared in the top 1000 names for baby boys, but whether it will make any headway there at this time is doubtful. Madison may be well on its way to being thought of as a "girl's name," at least for the next generation or so. Later, when all the Madisons of this era are gone, it might come back into use for boys, or it might become a classic name for girls, or it might just go back to being a surname. Who knows? In any case, this is one transferred surname for girls that I actually do like a lot--mainly because it still has the nickname Maddie. However, Madison is a bit overused at the moment, so you might take a second look at the original form, Madeline. It might be a better choice.