Entry № 6161 · Hebrew origin

Madeleine Madeleine — Meaning, Origin & Baby Name Popularity

/ MAD-len /
Gender
Girl
Origin
Hebrew
Meaning
"From Magdala, tower"
Syllables
3
First recorded
Medieval (French)

A name that means "from magdala, tower".

Madeleine is the French form of Magdalene — referring to Mary Magdalene, "of Magdala" (a town on the Sea of Galilee whose name means "tower").

Madeleine has been continuously in the U.S. top 1000 for over 140 years. Today it sits in the U.S. top 200.

From Magdala. Proust's madeleine.

The name in its native script.

Madeleine
Transliteration
Madeleine
Pronunciation
/ ˈmæd.lən /
Root
Grammatical form

Where Madeleine stands.

Madeleine does not currently appear in the US Social Security Administration's top 1,000 girls' names, so we don't publish a US rank or birth count for it. That says nothing about the name's standing elsewhere in the world — only that it sits outside the ranked US data we rely on.

Madeleines before her.

Real people
Madeleine Albright
First female U.S. Secretary of State.
1937 – 2022
Madeleine L'Engle
American novelist, A Wrinkle in Time.
1918 – 2007
In fiction
Madeline
Title character in Ludwig Bemelmans's books.
1939 onward

Names connected to Madeleine.

The number behind Madeleine.

5

The Seeker

In Pythagorean numerology the letters of Madeleine reduce to 5, The Seeker. This is a traditional interpretive system, not a factual claim about the name.