Variant of Madeline, from Magdalene meaning 'woman from Magdala,' a town on the Sea of Galilee.
Madalyne is a richly ornamented spelling of Madeleine, which itself derives from the Hebrew place name Migdal Eder or Migdal — meaning tower — by way of the New Testament figure Mary of Magdala. Mary Magdalene was the woman from the lakeside town of Magdala on the Sea of Galilee who, in the Gospel accounts, was among the most devoted followers of Jesus and the first witness to the resurrection. The Roman Catholic tradition later conflated her with other New Testament women, giving rise to the 'penitent Magdalene' archetype that dominated Western art for centuries — depicted in flowing hair and tears of contrition by painters from Titian to Caravaggio to Georges de La Tour.
The name traveled through Old French as Madeleine and Madeline, arriving in England in medieval form and expanding into dozens of variant spellings across Europe. In French culture it became associated with a deep, almost involuntary emotional memory — most famously through Marcel Proust's madeleine scene in In Search of Lost Time, where a small shell-shaped cake triggers an overwhelming flood of childhood recollection, making 'madeleine' synonymous with nostalgic sensory memory in literary discourse. The name Madeleine Albright carried it to geopolitical gravitas in the twentieth century.
Madalyne, with its y and its doubled vowel arrangement, belongs to a tradition of expressive feminine name spelling that flourished in Victorian and Edwardian England and persists in American naming culture. The spelling is both personal and historically grounded, appearing in old parish registers and emigrant ship manifests. It gives the name a slightly wilder, more individual energy than the standard Madeline while keeping all the depth of its extraordinary heritage — the tower, the witness, the tears, the cake.