Amberlyn
Feminine · “the fossil resin”
Amber has the strangest etymology of any English gem word. Arabic anbar named ambergris, the waxy substance produced by sperm whales; medieval Europe confused it with the fossil tree resin, and the resin took the name. So a stone that is petrified sap is called after a whale. Amberlyn adds the -lyn ending, and its peak is 1996.
How old is the name Amberlyn?
Amberlyn first appears in US birth records in 1975 — 50 years ago. The typical Amberlyn alive today was born around 2005, making them about 20 years old. About 1,700 people named Amberlyn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Amberlyn most popular?
Amberlyn peaked in 1996, reaching #2423 nationally. Today it ranks #6116, 3,693 places below that high. See the whole 1996 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From anbar to Amberlyn
The story of Amberlyn
Amber entered English naming in the nineteenth century with the other jewel names — Ruby, Pearl, Opal, Beryl, Garnet — and had a much later peak than any of them: it reached the American top twenty in the 1980s, helped by a 1944 novel and its 1947 film adaptation. Names that popular generate extensions, and the -lyn ending was the most available in the 1990s. Amberlyn, Amberly and Amberlynn all appear in the record in that decade, and this spelling peaks in 1996 as Amber itself began its decline.
Meaning
the fossil resin; from an Arabic word for ambergris
Arabic anbar meant ambergris, a substance from the digestive system of sperm whales used in perfumery. Medieval Latin took it as ambar and applied it to both that and the fossilized tree resin, which are entirely unrelated materials; European languages eventually kept amber for the resin and coined ambergris, 'grey amber', for the original. The name is the resin. The -lyn ending descends by sound from Welsh llyn, 'lake', and carries nothing.
How the name formed
- anbar
- ambar
- Amber
- Amberlyn
Related forms: Amberly · Ambar
Pronouncing Amberlyn
AM-ber-lin
Three syllables, stress on the first, with the last two reduced. Identical to Amberly and Amberlynn in American speech; the spellings differ only on paper.
Nicknames for Amberlyn
High
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1975
- Most girls named
- 201162 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2423reached in 1996
- Change vs 2024
- +26.7%19 in 2025, from 15
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Amberlyn in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Amberly in English — spelling variant
- Ambar in Spanish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California.
Amberlyns among us
people named Amberlyn are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 84,593 born in 2025 was named Amberlyn
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Amberlyn
- #6116
- Amberlyn on the 2025 chart
- #923
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Amberlyn went to 19 girls in 2025, but Amberlynn is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 37, which makes it the 923rd most-given girls’ name of the year — 5,193 places above the chart.
- Amberlyn19
- Amberlynn18
About 1 girl in 43,440 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 84,593 for Amberlyn itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Tashana test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Amberlyn's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Tashana climbed just as high around 1977, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Tashana's path sketches the road Amberlyn is walking now.
Amberlyn sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Amberlyn beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Amberlyn in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Amber is a complete, universally known name available as a short form.
- The Arabic and whale history behind the word is genuinely memorable.
- The pronunciation is obvious from the spelling.
- Amberly, Amberlyn and Amberlynn all circulate, so records will drift.
- Amber is far more common and hers will be shortened to it in practice.
- The -lyn ending dates the name closely to the 1985-2005 window.
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Amberlyn
Feminine · #6116 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Amberlyns are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,700 people named Amberlyn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Amberlyn?
- Amberlyn is the most-used spelling in US records — 19 of the 37 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Amberlynn.
- How popular is the name Amberlyn in 2025?
- Amberlyn ranks #6116 among US girl names in 2025, with 19 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Amberlyn?
- About 1 in every 84,593 US girls born in 2025 was named Amberlyn — 19 in all.
- Will my child share the name Amberlyn with classmates?
- Amberlyn will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Amberlyn
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Alvina#6116 · Mena#6116 · Harvey#6116 · Kellie#6116 · Alden#6116 · Jeanna#6116 · Sammi#6116 · Mamie#6116
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Amberlyn? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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