Medina

Meaning of Medina

Medina, a feminine appellation of Arabic provenance, derives from the canonical term mādīnah (مدينة), meaning ‘city’, and originally denoted the Prophet Muhammad’s settlement in the Hejaz—today’s al-Madīnah al-Munawwarah, Islam’s second holiest locus. Its incorporation into Anglo-American naming conventions began in the early 1950s, when it first appeared in United States birth records at rank 688, thereafter experiencing decadal oscillations largely within the lower quartile of the top 1,000. The most recent data—60 occurrences in 2024, yielding rank 890—attest to a trajectory of measured stability, marked by neither precipitous decline nor dramatic ascendancy. Functioning as a toponymic given name, Medina conveys connotations of urban centrality and spiritual heritage, its phonetic transparency supporting cross-cultural adoption while preserving precise cultural and historical resonance.