Maddilyn
Feminine · “Of Magdala”
Maddilyn is one of the many ways American English has found to write Madeline, and there are a great many: Madelyn, Madilyn, Madalyn, Maddilyn, Madilynn. Underneath all of them is Magdalene, the town on the Sea of Galilee that gave Mary her second name.
How old is the name Maddilyn?
Maddilyn first appears in US birth records in 1996 — 29 years ago. The typical Maddilyn is a kid of about 10 — this name's wave is very recent. About 1,300 people named Maddilyn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Maddilyn most popular?
Maddilyn peaked in 2016, reaching #1972 nationally. Today it ranks #5238, 3,266 places below that high. See the whole 2016 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Magdalēnē to Maddilyn
The story of Maddilyn
Magdala was a fishing town, and the woman called Mary of Magdala is the first witness of the resurrection in all four gospels. Her name spread through Christendom, and medieval English pronounced Maudlin — which became an English word for tearful sentimentality, from the tradition of depicting her weeping. French Madeleine gave the little cake and gave Proust his most famous page. American use of the Madeline family climbed steeply from the 1990s, and the -lyn endings climbed with it: Madelyn entered the top hundred, and the respellings multiplied behind it. Maddilyn is one of the smaller of them, with a peak in 2016.
Meaning
Of Magdala
From Greek Magdalēnē, of Magdala, a town on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee whose Hebrew name migdal means tower. Mary Magdalene took her name from it, French turned it into Madeleine, and English into Madeline. The -lyn spellings are twentieth-century American and pull the name toward Lynn, with which it has no connection.
How the name formed
- Magdalēnē
- Madeleine
- Madeline
- Maddilyn
Related forms: Madeleine · Magdalena · Magdalena · Madeline · Magdalena
Pronouncing Maddilyn
MAD-i-lin
Three syllables, stress on the first. The -lyn ending is said as a short reduced syllable, not as the full Lynn, which is what separates it from Madeline's own French-influenced MAD-uh-line.
Nicknames for Maddilyn
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1996
- Most girls named
- 2016101 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1972reached in 2016
- Change vs 2024
- −36.8%24 in 2025, from 38
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Maddilyn in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Madeleine in French — related form
- Magdalena in German — related form
- Magdalena in Spanish — related form
- Madeline in English — spelling variant
- Magdalena in Polish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Ohio.
Maddilyns among us
people named Maddilyn are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 66,969 born in 2025 was named Maddilyn
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Maddilyn
- #5238
- Maddilyn on the 2025 chart
- #308
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Maddilyn went to 24 girls in 2025, but Madilyn, Madilynn and Maddilynn are the same name said out loud. Together the 4 spellings went to 1,020, which makes it the 308th most-given girls’ name of the year — 4,930 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 1,576 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 66,969 for Maddilyn itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Riva test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Maddilyn's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Riva climbed just as high around 1953, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Riva's path sketches the road Maddilyn is walking now.
Maddilyn sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Maddilyn beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Maddilyn in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Maddi is a warm, universally understood short form.
- The Magdalene history is deep, documented and easy to explain.
- Everyone can say it on sight.
- Madelyn, Madilyn, Madalyn and Maddilyn are four spellings a bearer will get in rotation.
- It will be confused with the enormous Madison and Madelyn families.
- The double d has no basis in the underlying name.
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What they receive
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Maddilyn
Feminine · #5238 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Maddilyns are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,300 people named Maddilyn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Maddilyn?
- Maddilyn is one of 4 recorded spellings. Madilyn is the more common one — 662 births in 2025 against 24 for Maddilyn.
- How popular is the name Maddilyn in 2025?
- Maddilyn ranks #5238 among US girl names in 2025, with 24 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Maddilyn?
- About 1 in every 66,969 US girls born in 2025 was named Maddilyn — 24 in all.
- Will my child share the name Maddilyn with classmates?
- Maddilyn will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Maddilyn
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Irena#5238 · Esma#5238 · Dagny#5238 · Venice#5238 · Lisbeth#5238 · Loralie#5238 · Alania#5238 · Erma#5238
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Maddilyn? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Maddilyn and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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