Malena is a short form of Magdalena used in Spanish and Scandinavian countries; it goes back to Mary Magdalene and means "woman from Magdala". The Italian film Malena with Monica Bellucci, released in 2000, gave the name a brief international moment, which shows in its US peak soon after. Malena ranked number 1848 in the United States in 2000, reached number 1390 in 2002 and has since settled around number 2000 to 2800, standing at number 2271 in 2025.