Madelene
Feminine · “of Magdala”
Magdala was a town on the Sea of Galilee, and the name says only that a woman came from it. That is the whole of the meaning: not a personal name at all but a place of origin, attached to distinguish one woman from the several others in the same story.
How old is the name Madelene?
Madelene first appears in US birth records in 1893 — 132 years ago. The typical Madelene alive today was born around 1949, making them about 76 years old. About 1,500 people named Madelene are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Madelene most popular?
Madelene peaked in 1914, reaching #901 nationally. See the whole 1914 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Magdala to Madelene
The story of Madelene
The town has been excavated in the last twenty years, and there is a first-century synagogue there with a carved stone at the center of it. What the name did next is a study in language: Latin took Magdalena, French wore it down to Madeleine, English produced Maudlin as the ordinary spoken form and then attached that to weepy sentimentality, and the pastry took the French version. Madelene is the American spelling that trades the French ending for a native one, which flattens the last of the French out of it.
Meaning
of Magdala
The Aramaic place name is generally read as a tower. The personal name is the adjective from it, which is why it functions more like a surname than a given name in its original setting.
How the name formed
- Magdala
- Magdalena
- Madeleine
- Madelene
Related forms: Madeleine · Magdalena · Magdalene · Magdalena
Pronouncing Madelene
MAD-uh-leen
Three syllables with the weight at the front. French gives it three with the weight at the back, and German four.
Nicknames for Madelene
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
- 1893
- Most girls named
- 191855 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #901reached in 1914
- Change vs 2021
- −12.5%7 in 2024, from 8
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.
Madelene in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Madeleine in French — same name
- Magdalena in Spanish — related form
- Magdalene in German — related form
- Magdalena in Swedish — related form
Madelenes among us
people named Madelene are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Madelene sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- It has a form in every European language and is recognized across all of them.
- It carries several short forms, each a standing name somewhere.
- The place behind it is real, excavated and can be visited.
- Madeline and Madeleine are both commoner and will be written instead.
- The name is inescapably attached to one biblical figure and the reputation later attached to her.
- It reads clearly as a name of the early twentieth century in this spelling.
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Madelene
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Madelenes are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,500 people named Madelene are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Madelene in 2025?
- Madelene is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Madelene with classmates?
- Madelene will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More M names
The most-given names starting with M, all years combined.
Mary#125 · Margaret#112 · Michelle#465 · Melissa#419 · Maria#87 · Martha#712 · Marie#617 · Mildred#1962
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Madelene? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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