Madalyn
A feminine given name of English origin, derived from the Greek name "Magdalene".
Name Census estimates that about 20,779 living Americans carry the first name Madalyn. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Madalyn today is around 22 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Madalyn births was 2008 (1,144 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Madalyn. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Madalyn with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
21K
~ 1 in 16,495 Americans
Peak year
2008
1,144 babies that year
Average age
22
years old
2024 SSA rank
#932
Tracked since 1899
Census
Madalyn in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 17,978 people with the first name Madalyn, which placed it at #1,716 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#1,716
National first-name rank
People counted
18K
17,978 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
6.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
82.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Madalyn
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Madalyn is White at 82.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (9.7%) and Two or More Races (4.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Madalyn described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Madalyn at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White82.2% · 14,771
- Hispanic or Latino9.7% · 1,752
- Two or more races4.3% · 772
- Black or African American2.2% · 401
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.0% · 174
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 108
Popularity
Madalyn: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Madalyn from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 8,724 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Madalyn by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Madalyn during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Madalyns live
The SSA's state-level files cover 47 states and territories. Texas, California, Ohio recorded the most babies named Madalyn, while Rhode Island, Maine, Delaware recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 410 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Madalyn
The name Madalyn is a modern variation of the biblical name Madeleine, which is derived from the ancient Hebrew name Migdal, meaning "tower" or "fortress." It gained popularity as a Christian name due to its connection to Mary Magdalene, one of the most prominent female disciples of Jesus Christ in the New Testament.
The earliest recorded use of the name Madalyn can be traced back to the late 19th century in the United States. It is believed to have emerged as an Americanized spelling variation of the French name Madeleine, which was brought to the country by early French settlers and immigrants.
One of the earliest known individuals with the name Madalyn was Madalyn Murray O'Hair, an American atheist activist who was born in 1919 and famously founded the organization American Atheists. Her legal battle in the 1960s resulted in the landmark Supreme Court case that effectively banned mandatory Bible readings in public schools in the United States.
Another notable figure with the name Madalyn was Madalyn Aslan, an American author and journalist who was born in 1935. She is best known for her work as a war correspondent during the Vietnam War, where she reported from the frontlines and provided firsthand accounts of the conflict.
In the field of music, Madalyn Sklar is a prominent American composer and conductor who was born in 1936. She has composed numerous works for orchestra, chamber ensembles, and solo instruments, and her compositions have been performed by various prestigious orchestras and ensembles around the world.
Moving to the realm of sports, Madalyn Pawlak was an American track and field athlete who competed in the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. She specialized in the heptathlon and was a multiple-time national champion in the United States.
Finally, Madalyn Hiratzka is a contemporary American actress and writer known for her roles in various television series and films. She was born in 1983 and has appeared in popular shows like "Shameless" and "New Girl."
While the name Madalyn has its roots in biblical and religious contexts, it has evolved into a distinctive and modern name with its own unique identity, embraced by individuals from various backgrounds and walks of life throughout history.
People
Madalyn + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Madalyn as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with M
Other first names starting with M with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Madalyn: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Madalyn?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 20,779 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Madalyn going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 16,495 US residents.
Is Madalyn a common name?
We classify Madalyn as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 22,943 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Madalyn most popular?
The single biggest year for Madalyn was 2008, when 1,144 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Madalyn is about 22 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Madalyn in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 17,978 people with the name Madalyn, or 5.95 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,716 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Madalyn in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Madalyn?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Madalyn appears almost entirely female. Of the 17,973 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Madalyn?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Madalyn is White at 82.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (9.7%) and Two or More Races (4.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Madalyn most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Madalyn in the 2020 Census, accounting for 82.2% (14,771 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Madalyn in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Madalyn a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Madalyn in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Madalyn still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Madalyn in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Madalyn can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are named Madalyn?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.