Magda
Meaning
short form of Magdalena ('woman of Magdala'), fully standalone in Poland
The story
Magda is a short form that became complete in its own right across Polish, German, Dutch, Scandinavian, Czech, Slovak, and several other European languages. It usually comes from Magdalena, meaning a woman from Magdala, the town associated with Mary Magdalene in the New Testament. The place name itself may come from a Semitic word for tower. An Arabic name also written Magda has a separate history, so shared Latin letters do not make the two routes identical. On this site's American curve the European Magda appears only sparsely, with small traces around the 1970s and 1980s and again in the 2020s. That low line says little about Poland, where Magda is familiar and fully usable. Its strength is compression: the history of Magdalena retained in two clean syllables without requiring the longer form.
The formal names behind Magda
Magda is an established short form of this name.
Magdalena · Polish origin · woman from Magdala (biblical)
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Magda has stayed rare in US records the whole time: no peak decade to name.
Popularity in Brazil
31,425 people · the #789 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 6,452 · median age 49
Among people named Magda living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 1970s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 53 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Magda
People given the name Magda in the United States span the generations: the middle half were born anywhere from 1960 to 1999. Age is the one thing the name won't tell you.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Magda deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Magda truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Magda fits with your family’s names and surname.
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