← Back to Victorian and Belle Époque
Girl · Germanic, through Norman French
Matilda
Say it: muh-TIL-duh
Meaning
From Germanic maht 'might, strength' and hild 'battle'.
Certainscholars agree on this meaning.
Brought to England by the Normans, it was one of the most common names of the 12th and 13th centuries.
Its wave through time
A revival, back after decades away
In the United States
- 33,508 babies given this name since 1880
- At its height in 1886, about 1 in 468 girls
- 631 babies in 2020
Through the ages
- The Early Middle Ages400 to 800
- The High and Late Middle Ages1100 to 1450
- Victorian and Belle Époque1837 to 1914
- The Modern Age1880 to today
Used by
The family of the name
Other spellings: Mathilda, Tilda, Mahald, Maud
| German | Mathilde |
|---|---|
| French | Mathilde |
| Italian | Matilde |
| Spanish | Matilde |
| Portuguese | Mafalda |
| Dutch | Mathilde |
Famous bearers
- Empress Matilda, claimant to the English throne
- Matilda of Flanders, wife of William the Conqueror
- Matilda of Tuscany
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- Royal and noble genealogies
- The Domesday Book (1086) source
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
- Medieval European charters and records
- English poll taxes and lay subsidy rolls (13th and 14th centuries)
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.
Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.