Maud (given name)

Maud or Maude (approximately pronounced /mɔːd/ in English) derived from the Old French name Mahaut for Matilda. It originated in Old High German and consisted of the two words 'maht' (= power, powerful) and 'hiltja' (= battle). Its meaning is thus "powerful battler" or "powerful in battle".

It is a variant of the given name Matilda, but is uncommon as a surname. The Welsh variant of this name is Mawd.

The name's popularity in 19th-century England is associated with Alfred Tennyson's poem Maud.

People with the name include

Royalty and nobility

Maud, Countess of Huntingdon (c. 1074–1130), Queen of Alba as the wife of King David I of Scotland
Maud, 2nd Countess of Huntingdon (1074–1130), daughter of Waltheof, Earl of Northumbria and heir to his earldom of Huntingdon
Empress Matilda, (1102–1169), also known as "Mahaut", "Maud" or "Maude", daughter of King Henry I of England and mother to King Henry II of England
Maud Angelica Behn (born 2003), member of the Norwegian royal family
Maud Carnegie, Countess of Southesk (1893–1945), née Lady Maud Duff, titled Princess Maud from 1905 to 1923, a member of the British Royal Family
Maud de Badlesmere (1310–1366), English noblewoman and Countess of Oxford
Maud de Clare (1276–1327), Baroness de Clifford and Baroness de Welles by marriage
Maud de Lacy (1230–1304), Baroness Geneville
Maud de Lacy (1223–1289), Countess of Gloucester
Maud de Prendergast (c. 1242 – 1273), Norman-Irish noblewoman and Lady of Offaly
Maud Francis (c. 1370 – 1424), English noblewoman and Countess of Salisbury
Maud Green, Lady Parr (c. 1490/92 – 1531), English noblewoman and the mother of Katherine Parr, the sixth and final wife of King Henry VIII
Maud Herbert, the eldest daughter of William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke, who intended to marry her to Henry, Earl of Richmond, the later Henry VII
Maud le Vavasour (1176–1225), Irish noblewoman and Baroness Butler
Maud of Apulia (c. 1060 – 1112), Countess of Barcelona
Matilda of Flanders, (c. 1031 – 1083), also known as "Maud", Queen of England and Duchess of Normandy by marriage to William the Conqueror
Maud of Gloucester (died 1189), Countess of Chester
Maud of Lancaster (c. 1310 – 1377), Countess of Ulster
Maud of Normandy (died 1006)
Maud of Savoy (1125–1158), first Queen Consort of Portugal
Maud of Wales (1869–1938), also known as Maud, Queen of Norway, a member of the British Royal Family
Maud Palmer, Countess of Selborne (1858–1950), wife of William Palmer, 2nd Earl of Selborne and suffragist
Maud Parr, Lady Lane (c. 1507 – 1558), English courtier and gentlewoman to Queen Katherine Parr, her cousin
Maud Petty-Fitzmaurice, Marchioness of Lansdowne (1850–1932), British aristocrat and Vicereine of India

Arts

Maud Adams (born 1945), Swedish actress
Maud Aiken (1898–1978), Irish musician and director of the Municipal School of Music in Dublin
Maud Allan (1873–1956), Canadian dancer and choreographer
Maude Apatow (born 1997), American actress
Maud Tindal Atkinson (1875–1954), British painter
Maud Bodkin (1875–1967), English classical scholar
Maud Boyd (1867–1929), British actress and singer
Maud Cressall (1886–1962), British stage and silent film actress
Maud Diver (1867– 1945), English author in British India who wrote novels, short stories, biographies and journalistic pieces on Indian topics and about the English in India
Maud Durbin (1871–1936), American actress and writer
Maud Howe Elliott (1854–1948), American novelist and Pulitzer Prize winner
Maude Fealy (1883–1971), American stage and silent film actress
Maud Forget (born 1982), French actress
Maud Franklin (1857–1939), British painter and mistress of and model for artist James McNeill Whistler
Maud Frère (1923–1979), Belgian novelist
Maud Gatewood (1934–2004), American painter
Maud Hansson (1937–2020), Swedish actress
Maud Cuney Hare (1874–1936), American pianist and musicologist
Maud Hawinkels (born 1976), Dutch television presenter
Maud Hobson (1860 –1913), Australian-born English actress and burlesque performer
Maud Humphrey (1868–1940), American commercial illustrator and watercolorist
Maud Hyttenberg (1920–2009), Swedish actress
Maud Jeffries (1869–1946), American actress and popular subject of theatrical post-cards and photographs
Maud Lewis (1903–1970), Canadian folk artist
Maud Karpeles (1885–1976), British collector of folksongs and dance teacher
Maud Hart Lovelace (1892–1980), American writer
Alice Maud Krige (born 1954), South African actress and producer
Maud MacCarthy (Swami Omananda Puri; 1882–1967), Irish violinist, singer, writer, poet, esoteric teacher and authority on Indian music
Maud Madison (1870–1953), American actress and dancer
Maud Mary Brindley (1866–1939), English artist and suffragette
Maud Meyer, Sierra Leonean Nigerian jazz singer
Lucy Maud Montgomery (1874–1942), Canadian writer
Maud Molyneux (1948 –2008), French transgender actress, journalist, costume designer and activist
Maud Morgan (1860–1941), American harpist
Maud Morgan (1903–1999), American modern and abstract expressionist artist and art teacher
Maud Mulder (born 1981), Dutch singer who placed second in TV series Idols Netherlands
Maud Naftel (1856–1891), English watercolour painter
Maud Powell (1867–1920), American violinist
Maud Julia Augusta Russell (1891–1982), British socialite and art patron
Maud Hunt Squire (1873–1954), American painter and printmaker
Maud Sulter (1960–2008), Scottish fine artist and photographer
Maud Wagner (1877–1961), American circus performer and tattoo artist
Maud Welzen (born 1993), Dutch model
Maud Wyler (born 1982), French actress

Politics and activism

Maud Ball, British politician
Maud Bregeon (born 1991), French politician
Maud Adeline Cloudesley Brereton (1872–1946), British feminist and sanitary reformer
Maud Burnett (1863–1950), British politician who served as the first female mayor of Tynemouth
Maud Gatel, French politician of the Democratic Movement
Maud Gonne (1866–1953), English-born Irish revolutionary, feminist, actress and long-time poetic inspiration to William Butler Yeats
Maud Olivier (born 1953), French politician
Maud Olofsson (born 1955), Swedish politician and former leader of the Swedish Centre Party
Maud Ingersoll Probasco (1864– 1936), American suffragist and animal rights activist
Maud Thompson (1870–1962), American suffragist, women's rights activist and teacher
Maud von Ossietzky (1888–1974), Anglo-Indian suffragette and political activist in Germany
Maud Wood Park (1871–1955), American suffragist and women's rights activist
Maud Woodward (1885–1965), American politician

Sport

Maud Banks (1879–1967), English-born American tennis player
Maud Berglund (1934–2000), Swedish freestyle swimmer
Maud Coutereels (born 1986), Belgian football midfielder
Maud Fontenoy (born 1977), French sailor known for rowing across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans
Maud Galtier (1913–2014), French tennis player
Maud Herbert (born 1974), French windsurfer
Maud Le Car (born 1992), Saint Martin-born French professional surfer and model
Maud Megens (born 1996), Dutch water polo player
Maud Medenou (born 1990), French basketball player
Maud Muir (born 2001), English rugby union player
Maud Roetgering (born 1992), Dutch footballer defender
Maud Rosenbaum (1902–1981), Italian-American track-and-field athlete and tennis player
Maud Titterton (1867–1932), British golfer
Maud van der Meer (born 1992), Dutch competitive swimmer

Other

Maud Chadburn (1868–1957), British surgeon
Maud Cunard (1872–1948), American society hostess
Maud Cunnington (1869–1951), Welsh archaeologist
Maud de Boer-Buquicchio (born 1944), Dutch jurist
Maud Darwin (1861–1947), American socialite
Maud Frizon (born 1941), French shoe designer
Maud Galt (c. 1620 – c. 1670), Scottish woman accused of witchcraft
Maud Callaway Hays (b. 1906), American clubwoman and genealogist
Maud McCarthy (1859–1949), nursing sister and British Army matron-in-chief
Maud Menten (1879–1960), Canadian physician-scientist who made significant contributions to enzyme kinetics and histochemistry
Maud Oakes (1903–1990), American ethnologist and writer who published research about the cultures of indigenous tribes in the Americas
Maud Sellers (1861–1939), British historian and museum curator
Maud Slye (1879 –1954), American pathologist
Maud West (1880–13 March 1964), British detective
Maud Wilde (1880–1965), American physician, organizational founder, and author

Fictional

Maud, supporting protagonist of the webcomic Acception
Maud, secondary character in the 2011 French animated film A Monster in Paris, voiced by Ludivine Sagnier
Maud, revenge seeking mule in the comic strip And Her Name Was Maud, which first appeared in Hearst newspapers in 1904 and was written by Frederick Burr Opper; and in the 1916 animated film adaption
Maud, werecat in the fantasy book series The Inheritance Cycle, written by Christopher Paolini
Maud Bailey, main character in the 1990 Booker Prize for Fiction winning novel Possession, written by A. S. Byatt; and in the 2002 film adaption, where she is played by Gwyneth Paltrow; and in BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour serialised radio play adaption, where she is voiced by Jemma Redgrave
Maud Bagshaw, Dowager Baroness Bagshaw, character in the British period drama Downton Abbey, played by Imelda Staunton
Maud Beaton, character in the second series of HBO drama The Gilded Age, played by Nicole Brydon Bloom
Maud Brewster, the romantic interest of protagonist Humphrey Van Weyden in the 1904 adventure novel The Sea-Wolf, written by Jack London; also in the numerous film adaptions of the book
Maud Martha Brown, titular character in the 1953 novel Maud Martha, written by Pulitzer Prize winning African American poet Gwendolyn Brooks
Maud Grimes, wheelchair-using pensioner in the British soap Coronation Street, played by Elizabeth Bradley
Maud Gunneson, character in the TV series Penny Dreadful, played by Hannah Tointon
Maud Horsham, widowed grandmother living with Alzheimer's disease who investigates a double mystery in the 2019 BBC drama series Elizabeth Is Missing, played by Glenda Jackson (present) and Liv Hill (younger)
Maud Lilly, one of the central characters in the 2002 historical crime novel Fingersmith, written by Welsh novelist Sarah Waters; and in the 2005 BBC TV adaptation Fingersmith, where she was played by Elaine Cassidy
Maud MacMuckle, also known as Ever Madder Aunt Maud, one of the principal characters in the Eddie Dickens trilogy of children's books, written by Philip Ardagh
Maud Muller, titular subject of the 1856 poem, written by American Quaker poet John Greenleaf Whittier
Maud O'Hara, character in the 2024 Disney+ series Rivals, played by Victoria Smurfit
Maud Pie, older sister of Pinkie Pie from the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episode of the same name, voiced by Ingrid Nilson
Maud Silver, a retired governess-turned-private detective featured in 32 novels written by Patricia Wentworth
Maud Smith, character in the 1913 American silent short comedy film Almost a Rescue, played by Billie Bennett
Maud Spellbody, Mildred's best friend in The Worst Witch children's book series, written by Jill Murphy
Maud Watts, working class suffragette and central character in the 2015 film Suffragette (film), played by Carey Mulligan
Katie/Maud, central character in the 2019 British psychological horror film Saint Maud, played by Morfydd Clark

References

↑ https://www.ancestry.co.uk/genealogy/records/mawd-ferch-mael_24776958 ^{[user-generated source]}
↑ "Origin and Meaning of the Name Maud". babynamesworld. Retrieved 2008-09-29.
↑ "Maud - Name Meaning and Origin". thinkbabynames.com. Retrieved 2008-09-29.

This page or section lists people that share the same given name.
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[1] ttps://www.ancestry.co.uk/genealogy/records/mawd-ferch-mael_24776958 ^{[user-generated source]}

[2] "Origin and Meaning of the Name Maud". babynamesworld. Retrieved 2008-09-29.

[3] "Maud - Name Meaning and Origin". thinkbabynames.com. Retrieved 2008-09-29.