Malin
Feminine · “of Magdala”
Malin is given to both — 840 girls and 230 boys since 1880. See other names given to both
Watch Magdalena lose its middle. Scandinavian clipped it to Malena, then dropped the second vowel entirely to give Malin, and a five-syllable place adjective from the Sea of Galilee became a two-syllable Swedish name with nothing visible left of the town.
How old is the name Malin?
Malin first appears in US birth records in 1974 — 51 years ago. The typical Malin alive today was born around 2012, making them about 13 years old. About 800 people named Malin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Malin most popular?
Malin peaked in 2012, reaching #2679 nationally. Today it ranks #6838, 4,159 places below that high. See the whole 2012 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Magdala to Malin
The story of Malin
Scandinavian languages shorten borrowed saints' names hard, and the results are frequently unrecognizable: Magdalena gives Malin and Malena, Katarina gives Karin and Kajsa, Kristina gives Kerstin and Stina, Margareta gives Marit and Greta. The mechanism is consistent, dropping unstressed medial syllables until only the frame remains. Malin has been in ordinary Swedish use since the Middle Ages and became very popular in Sweden in the 1970s and 1980s. It reached United States records with Scandinavian families and, more recently, through general fashion; its best year on file is 2012.
Meaning
of Magdala
Malin is a Swedish and Norwegian short form of Magdalena, which means of Magdala, a town on the Sea of Galilee whose own name is connected to a word for a tower. The contraction runs Magdalena to Malena to Malin, losing the g and then the middle vowel. Malin Head in Donegal is an unrelated Irish place name.
How the name formed
- Magdala
- Magdalena
- Malena
- Malin
Related forms: Malin · Malin · Magdalena · Malene
Pronouncing Malin
MAH-lin
Two syllables with the stress on the first. Swedish gives the name a pitch accent that English does not reproduce; English speakers say muh-LIN as often as MAH-lin.
Nicknames for Malin
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
- 1974
- Most girls named
- 201266 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2679reached in 2012
- Change vs 2024
- +33.3%16 in 2025, from 12
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.
Malin in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Malin in Swedish — same name
- Malin in Norwegian — same name
- Magdalena in German — related form
- Malene in Danish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Minnesota, California.
Malins among us
people named Malin are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 100,454 born in 2025 was named Malin
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Malin
- #6838
- Malin on the 2025 chart
- #938
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Malin went to 16 girls in 2025, but Malyn is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 22, which makes it the 938th most-given girls’ name of the year — 5,900 places above the chart.
- Malin16
- Malyn6
About 1 girl in 73,058 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 100,454 for Malin 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 Donica test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Malin's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Donica climbed just as high around 1972, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Donica's path sketches the road Malin is walking now.
Malin 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
Malin beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Malin in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled meaning with a traceable chain back to a real town.
- Five letters, two syllables, and no spelling difficulty.
- Ordinary in Sweden and Norway, so it has a real community of bearers.
- English speakers frequently move the stress to the second syllable.
- Malin, Malen and Mallin all circulate in American records.
- It is unfamiliar in the United States and will need repeating.
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What they receive
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Malin
Feminine · #6838 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Malins are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Malin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Malin?
- Malin is the most-used spelling in US records — 16 of the 22 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Malyn.
- How popular is the name Malin in 2025?
- Malin ranks #6838 among US girl names in 2025, with 16 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Malin?
- About 1 in every 100,454 US girls born in 2025 was named Malin — 16 in all.
- Will my child share the name Malin with classmates?
- Malin will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Malin
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Malana#6838 · Jeannie#6838 · Maxie#6838 · Nicol#6838 · Chaney#6838 · Keana#6838 · Concetta#6838 · Pheobe#6838
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Malin? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Malin and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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