Matilda
The story
Matilda comes from the Germanic Mahthildis, joining maht, might or strength, with hild, battle, so it means mighty in battle. It lived up to that: Empress Matilda fought a long civil war for the English throne in the twelfth century and very nearly won it, a rare woman claiming a crown in her own right. The name softened over time without losing its spark, and Roald Dahl gave it a beloved modern heroine, the tiny, brilliant, book-loving Matilda. In Australia it even became a word for a wanderer's bundle, in the song Waltzing Matilda. In the United States Matilda has climbed fast and reads as current as it has ever been, with the affectionate short forms Tilly, Mattie and Millie. Spirited and strong, Matilda hands a child a warrior empress and a clever little heroine in one.
Matilda's name family
One shared root links 4 names across 2 languages.
Shared root: from Germanic Mahthilt, maht "might" + hilt "battle"; Maud is its medieval French contraction
The family
More branches
Matilda in song
Matilda
Harry Styles (2022)
Styles borrowed the name from Roald Dahl's girl with the terrible family and used it to tell a friend it is all right to leave one.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Matilda peaked in the 2020s.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
762 people · the #9,986 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 250,000 · median age 60
Among people named Matilda living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 1950s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 22 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
The Matilda deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Matilda truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Matilda fits with your family’s names and surname.
Keep exploring
Names like Matilda · Nicknames for Matilda · Middle names for Matilda · Global crossover names · Strong names
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