Madeleine
A French turn on Magdalena, going back to the Hebrew place-name Magdala, "tower". Fewer than 160 women in Poland carry it, so most Poles have never met one.
Madeleine Pronunciation
Madeleine is pronounced mah-de-le-EE-ne (/madɛlɛˈinɛ/).
What Madeleine means
Where Madeleine comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Madeleine reaches back to a place rather than a quality. Behind the French spelling stands Magdala, a fishing town on the Sea of Galilee, and behind the town stands the Hebrew word for tower. The woman remembered as Mary Magdalene took her name from that town, and Madeleine is what French speakers made of hers. The short meaning stays literal: a woman from Magdala, from a root that means tower.
French devotion to Saint Marie-Madeleine carried the name across Europe. It reached Polish through its own door, where speakers more often say Magdalena, with Magda as the everyday short form. In a school register you might meet one Madeleine among several Magdalenas, the French form seated beside its Polish cousin.
The word also grew a literary life. In Proust's novel the taste of a small madeleine cake unlocks a rush of memory, and that scene lodged the name in readers far from any church calendar.
One name, three shapes. Madeleine, Magdalena, Magda, each leading back to a tower above a lake.
How many people are named Madeleine
1 in 142682 women in Poland is named Madeleine. 158 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #2570 among female names.
Madeleine's popularity over time
Fewer than 2 girls were given the name in 2025. It has been stable for a decade.
Madeleine as a middle name
Madeleine is a first name for 158 women in Poland and a middle name for another 95, a 62/38 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 686th, between Katarina (95) and Susanne (95).
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#684 Graciela95
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#685 Katarina95
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#686 Madeleine95
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#687 Susanne95
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#688 Gerarda94