Meaning and background
The story behind Madison
Madison started as an English surname and later became a given name. Its surname background is not quite singular: it can be explained as “son of Matthew” or “son of Maud”. Behind the Name documents a particularly well-known cultural turning point in the 1984 film *Splash*, where the character chooses Madison from a New York street sign. For a dog it supplies the natural shorter call forms Maddie or Maddy.
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Everyday moments“Madison, come here!”
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About Madison
Recorded as a dog’s name
Madison appears in 55 dog licence records in the 2026 New York City dataset.
How to read this count
These records cover New York City and may count the same dog in more than one licence period. They are not a national popularity ranking.
Pronunciation and rhythm
/mædəsən/
US English sound sequence, converted from the CMU dictionary. Stress marks are shown separately.
Stress on the first syllable in the recorded US readings.
Other dictionary readings and notation
/mædəsən/ · primary stress on syllable 1M AE1 D AH0 S AH0 N
/mædɪsən/ · primary stress on syllable 1M AE1 D IH0 S AH0 N
These are US dictionary readings. Personal, regional and other language pronunciations may differ.
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Sources and research notes (2)
Gender association: NYC licence-period records. Any dog can use this name.
- New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene NYC Dog Licensing Dataset — extract_year 2026 — Dog licence periods, not unique dogs; NYC only. No owner-level fields retrieved.
- Carnegie Mellon University / CMU Sphinx maintainers CMU US English Pronouncing Dictionary — US English dictionary readings; not owner-specific or exhaustive multilingual pronunciation
References support the individual facts shown. A source link does not mean the entire profile has been verified.