Submitted Name Revision History

This name became popular after the Battle of Maida (1806), which took place near the Italian town of Maida and ended in a victory for Britain. In 18th- and 19th-century America it was used as a diminutive of both MADELINE and MAGDALENA. It is also associated with the English word maid meaning "maiden, virgin, girl".

This was the name of Sir Walter Scott's favorite dog, a male deerhound named after the Battle of Maida. It was also borne by the heroine of Inez Haynes Irwin's 19th-century Maida Westabrook series of children's books (now obscure).