Holiday Calendar

National Madison Day

Next celebratedSaturday, November 28, 2026

In Splash, Tom Hanks's character says it out loud: Madison is not a name. The century before that film produced 22 American girls called Madison, and 2001 alone produced 22,166.

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Last updated September 7, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar TeamHave an update or spot an error?
YEARLY DATENovember 28
OBSERVED INInternationally
CATEGORYNames
ORIGIN

Community Origin

FOUNDING ENTITY
Not documented
FIRST OBSERVED
Not documented
HOW THE HOLIDAY CAME TO BE

It arrived from the listing calendars, not from a founder.

The listing calendars that carry National Madison Day fix it to November 28, repeat it every year, and attach the hashtags #NationalMadisonDay and #MadisonDay. Beyond those listings, no founder, organisation, proclamation or establishing record for the day could be found.

+ Know the story? Submit a founder Help us complete this holiday
INTRO

Nobody in 1984 thought Madison was a name

The joke in Splash was that Madison was not a name. Tom Hanks's character says so out loud, on a Manhattan sidewalk, to the mermaid who has just taken the word off a street sign. National Madison Day belongs to everyone who proved him wrong.

He had the record on his side. Social Security's national files count 42 American girls named Madison in 1984, the year the film opened, and exactly 42 boys. Look back across the whole century before that and the files add up to 22 girls.

Seventeen years later the name was second in the country. American parents gave the name to 22,166 girls in 2001, behind only Emily's 25,059.

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ORIGINS

Madison Day history

INTRODUCTION

Before it belonged to anyone's daughter, Madison was a surname, and in America it belonged to a president. James Madison lived from 1751 to 1836 and served as the fourth President of the United States. New York put his name on a piece of Manhattan while he was still in office.

The land was an army parade ground, and it took Madison's name in 1814. It opened as Madison Square Park on 10 May 1847, bounded by Fifth Avenue on one side and Madison Avenue on the other. The first Madison Square Garden went up beside it in 1879.

CHAPTER 01

A street sign does the work of a christening

Madison Avenue is named for the president as well. That is how a Founding Father ended up on the corner where a mermaid needed something to call herself.

Touchstone Films and Walt Disney Productions released Splash on 9 March 1984, with Ron Howard directing. Before the mermaid reaches the street sign, Tom Hanks's character offers her Jennifer, Joanie, Hilary, Linda, Kim, Elizabeth and Samantha. Those, he tells her, are names.

The name literature does not hedge about what happened next. Behind the Name records that Madison was not commonly used as a feminine name until after the movie, citing Cleveland Kent Evans and K. M. Sheard.

The counts agree. In 1985 there were 301 girls against 81 boys, and the girls have led every year since.

CHAPTER 02

Nobody signed for the day

The name's paperwork is thorough. Nothing like it exists for the day. No founder, no organisation, no proclamation and no launch announcement for National Madison Day could be found.

A full text search of the Federal Register returns nothing for the exact phrase, and so does the same search across GovInfo.

What is left is the listing calendars that carry it, which repeat the same date every year and hang a hashtag on it. The name has a paper trail that runs back to a president. The day that honors it has none.

BY THE NUMBERS

National Madison Day by the Numbers

18 years
Unbroken run in the US girls' top ten
145 of 146
Years Madison appears in the US boys' list
4,945
US girls named Madison in 2025
280
Girls named Madison, England and Wales 2025

GOOD TO KNOW

Surprising facts about National Madison Day

Every boy named Madison fits inside one 1995

American boys have carried the name since 1880 and still do, but they add up to 7,869 across the whole record. In 1995 alone, 9,775 girls were given it.

The film's only Oscar nomination was for the joke

The Academy's tally for the 1985 ceremony reads "Splash 1 NOMINATION", and it was for Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen. Lowell Ganz, Babaloo Mandel and Bruce Jay Friedman lost to Robert Benton.

Before 1984 the name never cleared the floor

Social Security excludes from these files any name with fewer than five occurrences. Madison reaches the girls' list in only four years before 1984, at 5, 5, 6 and 6.

Surname names were rising, but not like this

Between 1984 and 1985 Mackenzie grew by a little over a quarter and Taylor by about a fifth. Madison multiplied by more than seven.

The name has gone up twice since its peak

After 2001 the American count fell in every year but two. It rose in 2004, and it rose again in 2025.

It's funny because no one understands the irony, because the whole point of me choosing that name was because it [was such a] silly name.
Daryl HannahPlayed Madison in Splash
Madison was completely unheard of as a girl's name.
Laura WattenbergBaby name analyst, BabyNameWizard.com

GOOD TO KNOW

National Madison Day Around the World

Wales

92nd among girls' names in 2025, a new entry to the Welsh top 100 and up 19 places on the year

England

191st in the same year, ninety-nine places further down the list than in Wales

New Zealand

still inside the top 100, at 74th in 2025

Canada

57th in 2024

France

last ranked in 2009, at 367th

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why We Love National Madison Day

MEANING

The meaning is still argued

Behind the Name gives the surname two readings, son of Matthew and son of Maud, citing Reaney and Wilson's Dictionary of English Surnames. Maud is the medieval English form of Matilda, so one of the two standard answers makes the name matronymic.

RECORD

The population is younger than the film

Social Security has recorded 419,806 American girls named Madison since 1880, and more than 99.99 percent of them were born in 1984 or later. This is not an old name widely shared; it is a recent one held by an enormous number of people.

GET INVOLVED

How to Celebrate National Madison Day

EDITOR'S PICK

Watch the scene that started it

The mermaid takes her name off a Madison Avenue street sign, and Tom Hanks tells her it is not a name. It is the moment the name literature credits for everything that followed.

VISIT

Visit the square the name came through

Madison Square Park sits between Fifth Avenue and Madison Avenue in Manhattan and has carried the president's name since it was an army parade ground. Stand on that corner and you are standing in the name's own back story.

LOOK

Look up a Madison's birth year in the data

Social Security publishes every year of American baby names from 1880 onward, name by name. The national files are free to download, so you can see exactly how many Madisons share a birth year with the one you know.

COMPARE

Compare the name across two countries

The Office for National Statistics publishes the full England and Wales list, which still carries Madison. Reading it beside the American figures shows where the name travelled after 1984.

TELL

Tell a Madison where the name came from

Most people who carry it were born after 1984, so the joke behind it is older than they are. Their name spent its first hundred years on the American boys' list before it was theirs.

Test your knowledge

How well do you know National Madison Day?

1 / 8

How many American girls did Social Security record as Madison in 1984?

Answer

No. It is an unofficial observance with no legal standing found, so schools, banks and offices stay open.

COLOPHON

Sources

How we know what’s on this page. References, not endorsements.

12sources
8primary records
3independently dated
Primary records
Social Security Administration2026
Popular Baby Names: Beyond the Top 1000 Names
Free national files listing every American baby name by year since 1880.
View source
Social Security Administration
Top names of the 2000s
The agency's decade table, with Madison second among girls' names.
View source
Social Security Administration
Top names of the 2010s
The following decade's table, with Madison down to tenth.
View source
Office for National Statistics2026-07
Baby names for girls in England and Wales: 2025
Every girls' name registered at birth in England and Wales, with separate Welsh and English ranks.
View source
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
The 57th Academy Awards, 1985
The Academy's own nominations list for the 1985 ceremony.
View source
New York City Department of Parks and Recreation
Madison Square Park Highlights
The city's historical sign text on the park, the 1814 naming and the first Madison Square Garden.
View source
Federal Register
Document search: National Madison Day
A full text search of federal notices and proclamations returning no results.
View source
U.S. Government Publishing Office
GovInfo full text search
Search across federal publications, including presidential documents and the Congressional Record.
View source
Additional coverage
American Film Institute
Splash (1984), AFI Catalog of Feature Films
Full production record for the film, including its March 1984 release, director and writing credits.
View source
Behind the Name
Meaning, origin and history of the name Madison
The surname's two derivations, the Splash attribution, and where the name ranks worldwide.
View source
Behind the Name
Meaning, origin and history of the name Maud
Maud as the medieval English and French form of Matilda.
View source
Yahoo Movies2014-03-07
How a 'Splash' Joke Lead to the 'Madison' Baby Name Boom
Daryl Hannah and baby name analysts on the joke that turned into a top ten name.
View source
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