Midge

Girls' name

Pearl, through Madge

Midge has been given to 805 babies in the U.S. since 1916. 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 1953, with 31 recorded.

Babies named Midge, 1974

1 in 608,000

Midge over time, 1880–2025

Girls

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Midge: meaning, origin, and history

Pearl, through Madge

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Midge means

Midge belongs to the name family reached through Midge → Madge → Margaret. Its meaning is “pearl”.

Origin, language, and formation

Midge is used in English.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Madge and Margaret.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Midge is pronounced /mɪd͡ʒ/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 805 girls were recorded with the name Midge between 1916 and 1974. Its highest annual count was 31 in 1953; its best national rank was #1,730 in 1944.

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 Midge?

Midge had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 1974, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 1974: 1 in 608,000; 5 of 3,039,803 births
Among girls only: 1 in 294,000; <0.01% of girls
Rank, 1974: Unranked; Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size: 421,407 kids; Even odds of a second one

Where Midge 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 1974 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 421,407 children born in 1974 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Midge. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Midges were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Midge was born before 1951 — so the typical Midge is around 74 today.

Median birth year: 1951; About 74 years old
Biggest decade: 1950s; 32.2% of all use
Born in the last 25 years: 55.4%; A modern name
Recorded since 1950: 446; People you could plausibly meet

Choose a decade

1950s — 32.2% of all recorded uses (259).

Is Midge 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 1953 (31)
Years since peak: 72; Years
Year-to-year steadiness: Shifting; 20.1% average annual change
Best rank ever: #1,730; 1944

Spellings of Midge

Midge is not the most common spelling — Madge is, with 48.8% against Midge's 2.9%.

Madge48.8%13,430
Marge13.8%3,784
Madie11.5%3,169
Aide7.3%2,010
Gidget5.8%1,586
Midge2.9%805
Aidee2.8%769
Inge2.6%717

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 Midge is used

Across 1910–2025, Midge was most concentrated in California — about 1 in — girls, against 1 in 1,013,033 across all states with data. It was least common in New York (1 in —).

00 per 100,000

State popularity map

Most concentrated

1California1 in —
2Illinois1 in —
3New York1 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. Midge has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Midge 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: #1,730; 1944
Peak year: 1953; 31 that year
First recorded: 1916
Last recorded: 1974
All-time count: 805
Count in 2025: Under 5

Names similar to Midge

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

Midori Mida Midna Middie Midhuna Ridge Midgie Madge Midajah Midred Knowledge Midnight Cambridge Talmadge Bridge Edwidge

Sibling names for Midge

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

For a sister

Louann Nanci Randy Jacalyn Oralia Luanne Kathlyn Romona

For a brother

Jacky Ike Dannie Val Stanton Stanford Lindsey Jerrold

Explore around Midge

Top names of 1953, Midge's peak year The 1950s in full Other names that peaked in 1944 Girls' names starting with M