Maud
- Pronunciation
- [Maud]
- Gender
- Female
- Meaning
- Strong In War
- Origin
- French
About the Name Maud
Maud is a medieval French and English form of Matilda, derived from the Old German elements maht ("might" or "strength") and hild ("battle"), producing the meaning "strong in war" or "mighty in battle." The name traveled from Germanic origins through Norman French into English use following the Conquest, and was borne by several notable medieval figures — giving it centuries of aristocratic and literary history before it ever appeared in American naming records. Maud represents the medieval English shortening of Matilda, stripped of its Latin ending into a form that is blunt, strong, and unmistakably Old World.
Maud appeared in the US Social Security top-1000 from 1880 — the opening year of recorded data — through 1890, last ranking at #97 with 439 births. Its peak came in 1883 at #68, reflecting its established presence in late-Victorian America. Total tracked top-1000 births amounted to 4,640, a modest figure that reflects its relatively brief window in the formal records.
Today Maud is a striking vintage choice: short, strong, and unmistakably medieval in character. It has begun attracting attention among parents drawn to austere Old World names that feel genuinely ancient rather than merely old-fashioned. Its single-syllable bluntness sets it apart from the more elaborate Victorian feminines of the same era. The sole recorded variant is Maude, the alternate spelling that adds a final -e in the Victorian literary fashion.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Maud
US Popularity History (1880–1890)
Annual US births named Maud by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 1886 with 478 girls named Maud (girl rank #74 that year).
Where it stands today: in 1890, ranked #97 for girls (439 US births). That's 23 places below its 1886 peak.
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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Variant Forms
| Name | Meaning | Gender | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maude | Strong In War | Female | French |
Looking for names like Maud?
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Compare Maud to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Maud against today's most popular girls-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).