Entry № 6212 · Hebrew origin

Magdalene Magdalene — Meaning, Origin & Baby Name Popularity

/ MAG-dah-leen /
Gender
Girl
Origin
Hebrew
Meaning
"Of Magdala (Mary Magdalene, apostle to the apostles)"
Syllables
3
First recorded
Ancient (Greek)

A name that means "of magdala (mary magdalene, apostle to the apostles)".

Magdalene is from the Hebrew place-name Magdala — "tower" — a Galilean fishing village on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. Mary Magdalene — the most prominent female disciple of Jesus in the New Testament — was the first witness to the Resurrection (John 20:11-18); the early Church Fathers called her apostola apostolorum ("apostle to the apostles"). The seven "demons" Jesus cast from her (Luke 8:2) are now widely understood by scholars as illness, not moral failing; the prostitute identification was a 6th-century conflation by Pope Gregory I.

Of Magdala (Mary Magdalene, apostle to the apostles) — a Hebrew name.

The name in its native script.

Μαγδαληνή
Transliteration
Magdalēnḗ
Pronunciation
/ ˈmæɡ.də.liːn /
Root
Grammatical form

Where Magdalene stands.

Magdalene 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.

Magdalenes before her.

Real people
Mary Magdalene
Apostle to the apostles.
1st c.
In fiction
Magdalene
Caravaggio's Penitent Magdalene.
1594

Names connected to Magdalene.

The number behind Magdalene.

8

The Visionary

In Pythagorean numerology the letters of Magdalene reduce to 8, The Visionary. This is a traditional interpretive system, not a factual claim about the name.