Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article

To: EDINVA; Varda
No one is disputing that Madison is a last name. The subject here is popular first names. Madison as a first name is claimed to have entered American culture on the heels of a movie (about 1980 where the slutty character adopted the name off a street sign). Do you have evidence of it as a given name before that? If this family has a record of it before that then I'm wrong.

According to this,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madison_(name)

Madison as a given name has never been all that popular but was used as a given name for boys well before the 1984 movie Splash. Some examples are:

Madison Smartt Bell (1957/), novelist
Madison Cawein (1865/1914), poet
Madison Cooper (1894/1956), American businessman
Madison Jones (1925/), author
Madison S. Perry (1814/1865), fourth governor of Florida

And it was also used as a middle name, most often paired with James.

James Madison Carpenter (1888/1983), Methodist minister, scholar
James Madison DeWolf (1843/1876), surgeon
James Madison Wells (1808/1899), governor of Louisiana
Clarence Madison Dally (1865/1904), American glassblower
George Madison Adams (1837/1920), U.S. representative from Kentucky

As far as Madison as a girl’s name, yes that didn’t seem to become a popular name for girls until the 1984 movie “Splash” which was a modern retelling of the Hans Christian Andersen fairytale “The Little Mermaid”. I haven’t seen that movie for years but I don’t recall the character Madison as being particularly “slutty”. OK, she did come out of the ocean and walk around naked but that’s because she was a mermaid and rather innocent and naïve and evidently living under the sea as a mermaid, clothing was optional. Then there is the Disney movie version of The Little Mermaid” but unlike “Madison”, Ariel isn’t naked but wears strategically placed sea shells. :) ,

147 posted on 12/09/2012 11:32:48 AM PST by MD Expat in PA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 129 | View Replies ]


To: MD Expat in PA
This is pretty much what I've read before. Madison as a girl's name is from the movie.

The sluttyness has nothing to do with nudity. The character in the movie meets the guy for a few seconds and then follows him for sex at his apartment.

The Little Mermaid cartoon character doesn’t behave anything like this.

152 posted on 12/09/2012 12:44:38 PM PST by Varda
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 147 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson