Matilda
- Pronunciation
- [Ma-til-da]
- Gender
- Female
- Meaning
- Mother Of Merlin
- Origin
- Arthurian
About the Name Matilda
Matilda descends from the Old Germanic Mahthildis, composed of maht (might, strength) and hild (battle) — yielding "mighty in battle" or "battle-strong." The name has been used continuously in Germanic and English-speaking countries since the medieval period, anchored by Empress Matilda (1102–1167), the only surviving legitimate child of King Henry I of England and a major figure in the 12th-century English civil war known as "The Anarchy."
The name's overwhelming modern cultural anchor is the title character of Roald Dahl's iconic 1988 children's novel Matilda — the precocious young girl with telekinetic powers. The novel was adapted into the 1996 film starring Mara Wilson, the 2010 musical by Tim Minchin, and the 2022 Netflix film. The Roald Dahl Matilda has anchored the name in late-20th and early-21st-century American children's culture.
Other notable bearers include the iconic Australian folk song Waltzing Matilda (1895, the unofficial national anthem of Australia); American actress Matilda Ledger (born 2005, daughter of Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams); and the contemporary American actress Matilda De Angelis. Matilda's American climb is part of the broader 21st-century vintage-revival wave alongside Adelaide, Eloise, and Hazel. The name climbed from outside the US top 1000 in 2010 to the US top 300 girls' rank by 2018 and the top 300 since. The name's appeal is its layered Old Germanic-medieval-royal-literary pedigree combined with three flowing syllables — the in-built mighty-in-battle etymological register, the strong Roald Dahl literary cultural anchor and Empress Matilda historical anchor, and tonal versatility from rural-American to upwardly-mobile-American. Common nicknames Tilly (the dominant warm short form, casual and warm), Tildy, Mattie (alternate, a popular standalone name on its own), Matty, and the rare Mattie-Lou each carry distinct registers; the alternate spellings Matilda, Mathilda, and Matilde have their own SSA tracking. International forms include Matilda (essentially identical across English/Italian/Spanish), Mathilde (French/German), Matylda (Polish/Czech), and the original Old Germanic Mahthildis.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Matilda
US Popularity History (2008–2025)
Annual US births named Matilda by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2025 with 838 girls named Matilda (girl rank #365 that year).
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Where in the US Is Matilda Most Popular?
Average girl-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's girls-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Matilda the strongest states are District of Columbia, Maine, South Dakota.
Strongest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | District of Columbia | #165 | 27 |
| 2 | Maine | #202 | 25 |
| 3 | South Dakota | #215 | 23 |
| 4 | Montana | #227 | 15 |
| 5 | Oregon | #246 | 144 |
| 6 | Minnesota | #284 | 199 |
| 7 | Massachusetts | #308 | 181 |
| 8 | Washington | #315 | 226 |
| 9 | Nebraska | #335 | 66 |
| 10 | Wisconsin | #339 | 153 |
Weakest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Louisiana | #818 | 36 |
| 2 | Alabama | #768 | 39 |
| 3 | Florida | #701 | 196 |
| 4 | Georgia | #694 | 109 |
| 5 | Texas | #692 | 414 |
| 6 | Arizona | #659 | 98 |
| 7 | South Carolina | #580 | 73 |
| 8 | New Jersey | #569 | 131 |
| 9 | Tennessee | #560 | 127 |
| 10 | Oklahoma | #547 | 56 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Matilda in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
| Name | Meaning | Gender | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maitilde | Strong Battle Maiden | Female | Irish |
| Mathilda | Strong In War | Female | French |
| Mathilde | Strong In War | Female | French |
| Mattie | Strong In War | Female | French |
| Matty | Strong In War | Female | French |
| Maud | Strong In War | Female | French |
| Maude | Strong In War | Female | French |
| Tilda | Mighty In War | Female | French |
| Tilly | Mighty In War | Female | French |
Looking for names like Matilda?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Matilda to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Matilda against today's most popular girls-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).
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