Madalin
Unisex Romanian name meaning "flower's bud".
Name Census estimates that about 513 living Americans carry the first name Madalin. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Madalin today is around 20 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Madalin births was 2001 (33 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Madalin. 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 Madalin with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
513
~ 1 in 668,137 Americans
Peak year
2001
33 babies that year
Average age
20
years old
2023 SSA rank
#16,660
Tracked since 1905
Census
Madalin in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 572 people with the first name Madalin, which placed it at #18,742 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
#18,742
National first-name rank
People counted
572
572 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
69.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Madalin
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Madalin is White at 69.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (18.5%) and Two or More Races (4.9%). 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 Madalin 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 Madalin at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White69.1% · 395
- Hispanic or Latino18.5% · 106
- Two or more races4.9% · 28
- Black or African American3.8% · 22
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.0% · 17
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 4
Popularity
Madalin: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Madalin from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 10 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 257 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
Madalin 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 Madalin during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Madalins live
Origin
Meaning and history of Madalin
The name Madalin is of Romanian origin, derived from the masculine name Madalin, which itself is a variant of the Biblical name Magdalene, meaning "woman from Magdala" in Hebrew. The name rose to prominence during the Middle Ages, thanks to its association with Mary Magdalene, one of the most important figures in the New Testament gospels.
In early Christian texts and apocryphal writings, Mary Magdalene is often portrayed as a repentant sinner who became one of Jesus' closest followers. Her name was widely adopted by devout Christians throughout Europe, and the variant Madalin became particularly popular in Romania and other parts of Eastern Europe.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Madalin can be found in the chronicles of the Moldavian Prince Stephen the Great (1457-1504), who named one of his daughters Madalina. Over the centuries, the name has been borne by several notable figures in Romanian history, including Madalin Voicu (1569-1629), a prominent boyar and military commander during the reign of Michael the Brave.
Outside of Romania, the name Madalin has been less common, but there are a few notable examples. One of the earliest was Madalin Falco (c. 1300-1370), an Italian friar and theologian who served as the Bishop of Orvieto. In more recent times, Madalin Ionescu (1939-2022) was a renowned Romanian philosopher and essayist, known for his contributions to the study of phenomenology and existentialism.
Another notable bearer of the name was Madalin Stanca (1901-1976), a Romanian poet and essayist who played a significant role in the avant-garde literary movement of the 1920s and 1930s. His works, which often explored themes of love, nature, and the human condition, earned him widespread acclaim both in his home country and abroad.
While the name Madalin has remained relatively uncommon outside of Romania and parts of Eastern Europe, its rich history and associations with figures like Mary Magdalene have ensured that it continues to be a respected and meaningful choice for parents in those regions.
People
Madalin + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Madalin 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
Madalin: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Madalin?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 513 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Madalin 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 668,137 US residents.
Is Madalin a common name?
We classify Madalin as "Very Rare". It ranks above 84.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 582 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Madalin most popular?
The single biggest year for Madalin was 2001, when 33 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Madalin is about 20 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Madalin in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 572 people with the name Madalin, or 0.19 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #18,742 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 Madalin 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 Madalin?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Madalin leans strongly female. 545 people counted with this name were female (96.8%), compared with 18 male bearers (3.2%). 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 Madalin?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Madalin is White at 69.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (18.5%) and Two or More Races (4.9%). 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 Madalin most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Madalin in the 2020 Census, accounting for 69.1% (395 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 Madalin in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Madalin a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Madalin 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 Madalin still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Madalin 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 Madalin 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 have Madalin as a first name?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.