Madeline, a variant of Magdalene, comes from a place name meaning "of Magdala." Magdala was an ancient Jewish city on the Sea of Galilee and it's name means "tower" in Hebrew. It's now a pilgrimage site in the Holy Land and is believed to be the birthplace of Mary Magdalene, a figure in the New Testament. Madeline was a popular girl's name in the U.S. in the early 1900s before fading out of the Social Security Administration's top-700 in the late-1970s. It has since made a comeback and has been a top-100 girl's name every year since 1994, with the exception of 2022. Most American parents today prefer to spell it Madelyn.
