Maddox

MA-duhks

The name Maddox originates as a Welsh surname derived from Madoc or Madog, with the patronymic suffix -s making it “son of Madoc.” The root name Madog comes from the Old Welsh mad, meaning “fortunate” or “good,” placing Maddox in the family of names

US Rank

No. 215

Births

1,665

Peak Year

2017

carrying the sense of “son of the fortunate 1” or “son of benefactor.”

The most famous bearer of the underlying name is the semi-legendary Welsh prince Madog ab Owain Gwynedd (12th century), who, according to a tradition first recorded in 1559, sailed west from Wales and is said to have discovered America 3 centuries

What the name Maddox means

before Columbus.

Though historians regard the story as legend, it inspired Robert Southey’s epic poem Madoc (1805) and contributed to the romantic mystique of the name.

Maddox appeared in medieval Welsh records from the 13th century onward and became firmly established as a surname in Wales, the Welsh Marches, and later the American colonies.

Walter Maddox was a Welsh physician to King Edward III in the 14th century. The name also appears in the antiquarian Thomas Maddox, historiographer royal to Queen Anne, whose History of the Exchequer (1711) remains a key medieval source.

As a first name, Maddox was virtually unknown until 2002, when actress Angelina Jolie adopted a Cambodian son and named him Maddox. The name entered the U.S.

Social Security Administration top 1000 the following year, climbed rapidly through the 2000s, and reached inside the top 200 by 2014.

It is now a mainstream American boys’ name, favored for its strong -ox ending, a sound shared with popular names such as Knox, Jax, and Fox.

Contemporary bearers include Maddox Jolie-Pitt himself and American football player Maddox Horne. The name is most popular in the United States, Canada, and Australia.