Magdalyn
Feminine · “of Magdala”
Magdalyn is a town's name with an American ending. Magdala stood on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, and the woman the Gospels call Mary Magdalene was identified by it — Mary of Magdala, the way anyone might be distinguished from the other Marys. The Hebrew behind the town name is concrete: a tower.
How old is the name Magdalyn?
Magdalyn first appears in US birth records in 1913 — 112 years ago. The typical Magdalyn alive today was born around 2009, making them about 16 years old. About 600 people named Magdalyn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Magdalyn most popular?
Magdalyn peaked in 1913, reaching #3187 nationally. Today it ranks #14942, 11,755 places below that high. See the whole 1913 chart.
Where it comes from
From migdal to Magdalyn
The story of Magdalyn
The name spread through Europe with the cult of Mary Magdalene and became Madeleine in France, Magdalena in Spain and Germany, Maddalena in Italy. English produced Madeline and also, by a much rougher road, the word maudlin: Magdalen was pronounced in English something like MAWD-lin, and because the Magdalene of medieval devotion was always depicted weeping, the word came to mean tearfully sentimental. Two Oxford and Cambridge colleges still spell the name Magdalen and say it that way. This spelling belongs to none of that — it is a modern American respelling of the Latinate form, with the ending swapped for the one that finishes Carolyn and Jaclyn.
Meaning
of Magdala; the tower
Hebrew migdal means a tower, and it names several places in the region; Magdala on the Galilee is the one attached to this name. So Magdalene is not a personal name at all in origin but a description of where someone came from, exactly like Nazarene. That is well established. The -lyn ending is a twentieth-century American substitution for -lene and carries nothing with it.
How the name formed
- migdal
- Magdala
- Magdalene
- Magdalyn
Related forms: Madeleine · Magdalena · Magdalena · Maddalena · Magdalena
Pronouncing Magdalyn
MAG-duh-lin
MAG-duh-lin, three syllables, stress at the front, the middle reduced. The -lyn ending is said exactly like -lene in an unstressed position, which is why the substitution was available in the first place.
Nicknames for Magdalyn
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
- 1913
- Most girls named
- 201032 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3187reached in 1913
- Change vs 2024
- −44.4%5 in 2025, from 9
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.
Magdalyn 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
Magdalyns among us
people named Magdalyn are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 321,453 born in 2025 was named Magdalyn
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Magdalyn
- #14942
- Magdalyn on the 2025 chart
- #946
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Magdalyn went to 5 girls in 2025, but Magdalynn is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 14, which makes it the 946th most-given girls’ name of the year — 13,996 places above the chart.
- Magdalynn9
- Magdalyn5
About 1 girl in 114,805 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 321,453 for Magdalyn 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
Fashion outlook
Magdalyn 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
Magdalyn beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Magdalyn in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It has a real place, a real Hebrew word and a very well documented history behind it.
- Magda and Maggie are both available and they go in quite different directions.
- Every European language has a version of the name, so it travels without needing translation.
- Madeline, Magdalene and Magdalena are all far better known, and this spelling will be pulled toward them.
- The Gospel association is strong and specific, and it arrives with a set of assumptions about the woman in question that scholarship has long disputed.
- The -lyn ending marks the name as a recent American respelling rather than one of the historic European forms.
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Magdalyn
Feminine · #14942 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Magdalyns are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Magdalyn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Magdalyn?
- Magdalyn is one of 2 recorded spellings. Magdalynn is the more common one — 9 births in 2025 against 5 for Magdalyn.
- How popular is the name Magdalyn in 2025?
- Magdalyn ranks #14942 among US girl names in 2025, with 5 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Magdalyn?
- About 1 in every 321,453 US girls born in 2025 was named Magdalyn — 5 in all.
- Will my child share the name Magdalyn with classmates?
- Magdalyn will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Magdalyn
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Hester#14942 · Lyda#14942 · Zula#14942 · Zona#14942 · Ula#14942 · Belva#14942 · Lucetta#14942 · Leala#14942
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Magdalyn? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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