Madeleine
Meaning of Madeleine
Madeleine (mad-uh-LYN in English, mah-duh-LEN in French) is a traveling tale in one breath. She started life as Magdalene, “lady from Magdala,” a seaside town whose very name means “tower,” so backbone comes baked in. Over time she cha-cha-strolled from the Holy Land to France, shrugging on a silk scarf and picking up a buttery side hustle as the famous shell-shaped cake that melts in Proust’s teacup. Now she pirouettes through modern nurseries with Old-World poise, equal parts cathedral hush and street-carnival sparkle. Nicknames—Maddie, Mads, Lena—cling to her like confetti, and she laughs at them all. On American charts she beats like a steady conga drum—never vanishing, never shouting, always dancing somewhere in the middle since the 1880s. Parents reach for her because she feels saintly yet spicy, sweet yet strong, a ray of Mediterranean sun wrapped in French pastry. Gift her to a daughter and watch her stand tall, tender, unforgettable.
Pronunciation
English
- Pronunced as mad-uh-LYN (/ˈmæd.lən/)
French
- Pronunced as mah-duh-LEN (/ma.dɑ.lən/)
U.S. Popularity Chart
States Popularity Chart
Notable People Named Madeleine
| Madeleine Albright was an American diplomat and political scientist who became the first woman to serve as US secretary of state under President Bill Clinton from 1997 to 2001. |
| Madeleine L'Engle was an American author best known for A Wrinkle in Time and its sequels, blending Christian faith with modern science in her work. |
| Madeleine Duncan Brown was an American who alleged a long affair with President Lyndon B. Johnson, said they had a son, and accused him of involvement in the JFK assassination. |
| Madeleine Sophie Barat was a French religious sister who founded the Society of the Sacred Heart, a worldwide teaching order, and was canonized in 1925. |
| Madeleine Astor - Madeleine Talmage Dick was an American socialite and RMS Titanic survivor, known as the second wife and widow of John Jacob Astor IV. |
| Madeleine Stowe is an American actress who moved from TV to films such as Stakeout, The Last of the Mohicans, and 12 Monkeys, winning a National Society of Film Critics Award for Short Cuts. |
| Madeleine Vionnet was a French fashion designer who pioneered the bias cut dress, founded a Paris house in 1912, rose to prominence in the 1920s and 1930s, and closed her house at the start of the Second World War before retiring. |
| Madeleine Bordallo - Madeleine Mary Zeien Bordallo is an American and Guamanian politician who served as delegate from Guam to the US House from 2003 to 2019. |
| Swiss-born American diplomat, author, and Democrat Madeleine Kunin served as the 77th governor of Vermont from 1985 to 1991 and later as US ambassador to Switzerland, becoming the first and only female governor of Vermont and the first Jewish woman elected governor of a US state. |
| Madeleine Grynsztejn has served as Pritzker Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago since 2008. |
| Madeleine Ruth Ogilvie is an Australian lawyer and Liberal politician serving as the member for Clark in the Tasmanian House of Assembly and as a minister in the Second Rockliff ministry. |
| Madeleine Peyroux is an American jazz singer and songwriter who began busking in Paris as a teenager and found mainstream success in 2004 when her album Careless Love sold half a million copies. |
| Madeleine Mathilde Henrey was a French born writer whose more than 30 mostly autobiographical books were widely celebrated in postwar Britain. |
| Madeleine King - Madeleine Mary Harvie King is an Australian Labor politician who has represented the Western Australian seat of Brand since 2016 and has served as Minister for Resources and for Northern Australia since 2022 after earlier work as a lawyer and political adviser. |
| Madeleine Sims-Fewer - Madeleine Sims Fewer is a British and Canadian independent filmmaker and actress. |
