Madison is an English surname meaning "son of Maud" or "son of Matthew", and it belongs to James Madison, the fourth president of the United States. As a girls' name it was virtually unknown until the 1984 film Splash, in which the mermaid picks the name off a street sign in New York. Madison then rose to number three among American girls in 2000 and number two in 2001, stayed in the top 10 for a decade and ranks number 40 in 2025.