Matilda

There is something boot-stomping and irresistible about a name that means mighty in battle. Matilda comes from the Old High German Mahthildis, binding maht — might — to hild — battle — a formidable etymology worn by medieval queens who fought for thrones and refused to concede them. The name crossed the Channel with the Normans and never entirely left England, persisting in estate records and church registers through every century that followed.

Roald Dahl's bookish, telekinetic heroine gave it an entirely new temperament in 1988 — fierce intelligence wrapped in a small cardigan, a girl who defeated cruelty through absolute calm and the careful deployment of her gifts — and the 1996 film cemented that portrait for a full generation of parents who have now begun naming their own daughters. The name had been sleeping quietly in the American top 1,000 for decades before waking in the 2010s, and in 2026 it sits solidly in the American top 200, part of the broader Victorian-name revival but more specific than most of its cohort. There is no other Matilda to confuse it with at the playground or in the classroom. It pairs beautifully with siblings named Helena or Lilliana, shares the same vintage seriousness and vowel richness, and suits girls who are expected to take their time arriving at a conclusion and to be right when they get there. Three syllables, ma-TIL-da. A name that sounds like it already knows how the story ends.