Madeline

The name owes its global use to Saint Mary Magdalene, the New Testament figure who followed Jesus, witnessed the Crucifixion, and was the first to encounter the risen Christ according to all four Gospels.

Western Christian tradition, following Pope Gregory I in 591, conflated her with the unnamed sinful woman of Luke 7 and with Mary of Bethany, an identification not shared by the Eastern Orthodox church.

Her cult became enormous in medieval Europe, with major shrines at Vézelay in Burgundy and at Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume in Provence.

Literature has used the name with enduring affection. The French author Ludwig Bemelmans created the children’s character Madeline, the brave Parisian schoolgirl, in 1939, producing a series translated into dozens of languages.

Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time (1913-1927) made the small shell-shaped madeleine cake an icon of involuntary memory. The film Madeline (1998) and the television adaptations have kept the literary character familiar to new generations.

Madeline ranked inside the United States Social Security Administration top 200 from 1880 until 1936, then declined to a low point in the 1960s.

The Bemelmans revival lifted it back into the top 100 by 1995, where it has remained ever since, currently sitting near the 110th position. The variant spellings Madelyn and Madeleine together push the combined usage substantially higher.

Notable bearers include the former United States Secretary of State Madeleine Albright (1937-2022), who used the French spelling, and the Canadian author Madeleine Thien.