Why is Magdalene called Magdalene?

Magdalene College is one of the oldest colleges at the University of Cambridge. The college's name is spelled 'Magdalene', so why is it pronounced mawd-lin?

The year is 1542. The future of the monks' hostel in Cambridge, called Buckingham College, is uncertain. Its patron monasteries have been dissolved. Henry VIII's Lord Chancellor, Thomas Audley, is tasked with saving the college. He chooses to rededicate it to Mary Magdalene, the biblical figure.

At the time, in English, her name was pronounced mawd-lin. Latin Magdalena had become French Madeleine which became English mawd-lin.

English later evolved back towards the Latin pronunciation, but in Cambridge, the old pronunciation stuck. That's why this is mawd-lin, not mag-duh-lin, college.

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But why did Thomas Audley choose to name the college after Mary Magdalene in the first place?

Although as Lord Chancellor, Audley had the power to choose any name, it's a seemingly odd choice for 1542, in the early stages of the English Reformation. The focus of religion was gradually moving away from saints such as Mary Magdalene and towards God. In fact, in 1536, Mary Magdalene had been temporarily removed from the calendar of saints.

One hypothesis, first proposed in 1655, is that Thomas Audley chose 'Maudleyn' as a pun on his own name. Some of the earliest documents related to the college spell its name as M-Audley-N. We don't know exactly why Audley did this, or even if it was intentional.

Magdalene still seems like an odd choice, even with this pun. The role of Mary Magdalene in the Bible is what best explains it. In the gospel of Luke, she was 'healed of evil spirits'. Thomas Audley may have wanted to suggest that he was purging the college (at the time called Buckingham College) from monks and from its association with the treacherous Dukes of Buckingham.