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Mafalda

Girls' name

Possibly might, through Matilda

Mafalda has been given to 1,279 babies in the U.S. since 1902. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1925, with 85 recorded.

Babies named Mafalda, 1937

1 in 152,000

Mafalda over time, 1880–2025

Girls
025507510018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Mafalda: meaning, origin, and history

Possibly might, through Matilda

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Mafalda means

Mafalda belongs to the name family reached through Mafalda → Matilda. Its meaning is “might”.

Origin, language, and formation

Mafalda is used in Cebuano, Portuguese and Spanish.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Matilda.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Cebuano, Mafalda is pronounced /maˈpalda/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 1,279 girls were recorded with the name Mafalda between 1902 and 1937. Its highest annual count was 85 in 1925; its best national rank was #758 in 1915.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Mafalda?

Mafalda had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 1937, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 1937
1 in 152,000
14 of 2,130,660 births
Among girls only
1 in 76,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 1937
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
105,491 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Mafalda sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 1937 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 105,491 children born in 1937 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Mafalda. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Mafaldas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Mafalda was born before 1922 — so the typical Mafalda is around 103 today.

Median birth year
1922
About 103 years old
Biggest decade
1920s
52.7% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
95.2%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
0
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1920s — 52.7% of all recorded uses (674).

Is Mafalda rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 1925 (85)
Years since peak
100
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
16.6% average annual change
Best rank ever
#758
1915

Spellings of Mafalda

Mafalda is not the most common spelling — Matilda is, with 63.6% against Mafalda's 2.2%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Mafalda is used

Across 1910–2025, Mafalda was most concentrated in Rhode Island — about 1 in 16,667 girls, against 1 in 46,397 across all states with data. It was least common in Illinois (1 in —).

06 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Rhode Island1 in 16,667
  2. 2Massachusetts1 in 33,333
  3. 3New York1 in 33,333
  4. 4Pennsylvania1 in 33,333
  5. 5Connecticut1 in 50,000
  6. 6New Jersey1 in 50,000
  7. 7Illinois1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Mafalda has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Mafalda around the world

Where Mafalda ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    2007–2025
    #4,201
    in 2025
  • France
    1912–2024
    #4,442
    in 2024
  • Canada
    2018–2018
    #3,384
    in 2018
  • South Australia
    1956–1992
    #704
    in 1992

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Mafalda by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#758
1915
Peak year
1925
85 that year
First recorded
1902
Last recorded
1937
All-time count
1,279
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Mafalda

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

TildaDonaldaEsmereldaEmeldaDoneldaBrunildaGriceldaCriseldaAwildaEzmeraldaEtheldaImeldaMathildaRomildaAlwildaGrizeldaGriseldaRonaldaSheldaTheldaMeldaArmildaClotildaGolda

Sibling names for Mafalda

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Mafalda

Top names of 1925, Mafalda's peak yearThe 1920s in fullOther names that peaked in 1915Girls' names starting with MPortuguese Girl Names