Madison

Madison is an Old English surname originating as a matronymic — "son of Maud" or "son of Matilda" — where Maud is a medieval form of Matilda, from the Germanic Mahthildis, meaning "might in battle." It became associated with James Madison, the fourth President of the United States and a principal author of the Constitution. Its transformation into a modern given name began largely in the 1980s.

Madison ranks #150 among America's most popular pet names, a name that was essentially invented as a feminine given name by the 1984 film Splash, in which a mermaid chooses it from a New York street sign. It subsequently became one of the most popular human baby names of the 1990s and 2000s, and that cultural saturation naturally extended to pets. Madison has a modern crispness that works well for a companion with a confident, contemporary presence — polished, friendly, and entirely at home in any setting.