Why name "Madison" so popular for girls?

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

On Mar 25, 2004, at 2:15 AM, Grant Barrett wrote:

> My niece is named Madison. My sister claims she didn't name the child
> after anyone or anything.
>
> Since reading of the name's popularity some time ago, I have
> encountered many other Madisons, and their parents, and as far as I can
> remember, all seem to believe they plucked the name from the air, that
> they didn't borrow it from a television or movie character, an actress,
> a favorite book, a friend, or from anyone or anything specific.
> "Madison," for whatever reason, appears to have been washed ashore by
> the zei[t]geist.

the current authority on this topic is the fascinating:

Lieberson, Stanley. 2000. A matter of taste: How names, fashions, and
culture change. New Haven CT: Yale Univ. Press.

[deliciously, lieberson is the Abbott Lawrence Lowell Professor of
Sociology at Harvard.]

lieberson points out that though there are social explanations for some
name fashions, there is a general "ratchet effect" in which names that
happen to get chosen build in popularity year by year (and then crash,
because they've become "too popular"), and other internal effects,
including favored phonology.

but there's a lot that doesn't have a deep explanation.

arnold, who has a three-week-old granddaughter named
   opal eleanor armstrong zwicky