Though nowadays spelt in the biblical and continental way, 'Magdalene', the College name is customarily pronounced 'Maudlyn'

Why 'Maudlyn'?

One of the questions we are asked most commonly is about the pronunciation of the name of the College! Though nowadays spelt in the biblical and continental way, 'Magdalene', the College name is customarily pronounced 'Maudlyn'.

The College at its refoundation by Lord Audley in 1542, was dedicated to St Mary Magdalene. The choice of the name of Mary Magdalene appears to have had a touch of vanity. In many early documents, the name is clearly spelt as pronounced: 'Maudleyn', containing within it the name of Audley himself! The final 'e' on Magdalene was an attempt, with the advent of the postal service in the mid nineteenth-century, to distinguish us from our sister College, Magdalen Oxford.