Madlyn
Feminine · “the woman from Magdala”
Magdalene is a place. Magdala was a town on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee, and its name in Aramaic means a tower — so the woman called the Magdalene in the Gospels is being identified by where she came from, exactly as a modern surname would do it. Madlyn is that name with its middle worn away by English speech.
How old is the name Madlyn?
Madlyn first appears in US birth records in 1898 — 127 years ago. The typical Madlyn alive today was born around 1941, making them about 84 years old. About 1,100 people named Madlyn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Madlyn most popular?
Madlyn peaked in 1922, reaching #841 nationally. Today it ranks #13208, 12,367 places below that high. See the whole 1922 chart.
Where it comes from
From migdal to Madlyn
The story of Madlyn
Mary Magdalene became one of the most venerated figures in medieval Christianity, and her name spread in dozens of forms — Madeleine in French, Magdalena in Spanish and German, Maddalena in Italian, Madeline in English. English shortened it hard: the middle syllable dropped out, and Madlyn, Madelyn and Madeline are all the same name at different degrees of erosion. This spelling appears in American records from the 1890s and peaked in the 1920s, which places it a full century before the current revival of the longer forms.
Meaning
the woman from Magdala
From the Aramaic and Hebrew migdal, a tower, which gave the town of Magdala its name. The Greek of the Gospels calls her Maria the Magdalene, meaning of Magdala, and the epithet became a name in its own right across Europe. So the meaning is a tower only at two removes: it is really a place name doing the work of a surname.
How the name formed
- migdal
- Magdalene
- Madeline
- Madlyn
Related forms: Madeleine · Magdalena · Magdalena · Maddalena · Magdalena
Pronouncing Madlyn
MAD-lin
Two syllables, stress on the first. The longer spellings are usually given three — MAD-uh-lin — and this version simply writes what fast speech does to the middle vowel, which is to remove it.
Nicknames for Madlyn
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
- 1898
- Most girls named
- 192276 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #841reached in 1922
- Change vs 2023
- −25.0%6 in 2025, 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.
Madlyn in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Madeleine in French — same name
- Magdalena in Spanish — same name
- Magdalena in German — same name
- Maddalena in Italian — same name
- Magdalena in Polish — same name
Madlyns among us
people named Madlyn are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 267,878 born in 2025 was named Madlyn
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Madlyn
- #13208
- Madlyn on the 2025 chart
- #948
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Madlyn went to 6 girls in 2025, but Madlynn is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 12, which makes it the 948th most-given girls’ name of the year — 12,260 places above the chart.
- Madlyn6
- Madlynn6
About 1 girl in 133,939 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 267,878 for Madlyn 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 Burnice test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Madlyn's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Burnice climbed just as high around 1907, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Burnice's path sketches the road Madlyn is walking now.
Madlyn 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
Madlyn beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Madlyn in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Maddy is available and is among the most current short forms in American use.
- The place name behind it is real, excavated and still identifiable on a map.
- Two syllables and six letters — shorter than any other spelling in the family.
- Madelyn and Madeline are both far commoner and will be written instead.
- It belongs to an older American generation, though the longer forms are currently very fashionable.
- The name family has more spellings than almost any other, so dictation is permanent.
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What they receive
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Madlyn
Feminine · #13208 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Madlyns are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,100 people named Madlyn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Madlyn?
- Madlyn is the most-used spelling in US records — 6 of the 12 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Madlynn.
- How popular is the name Madlyn in 2025?
- Madlyn ranks #13208 among US girl names in 2025, with 6 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Madlyn?
- About 1 in every 267,878 US girls born in 2025 was named Madlyn — 6 in all.
- Will my child share the name Madlyn with classmates?
- Madlyn will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Madlyn
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
John#13208 · Vinnie#13208 · Margery#13208 · Jossie#13208 · Tressa#13208 · Erie#13208 · Bernadine#13208 · Euna#13208
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Madlyn? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Madlyn and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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