Linda
Feminine · “pretty”
Linda is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 1,455,143 girls against 3,756 boys since 1880. See Linda as a boy name
Linda is one of the very few names whose rise can be pinned to a single piece of music. A songwriter was asked by his lawyer to write something for the lawyer's baby daughter; he did, the song became a standard, and within a few years the name was at the top of the American lists and stayed there.
How old is the name Linda?
Linda was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Linda alive today was born around 1951, making them about 74 years old. About 1,113,000 people named Linda are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Linda most popular?
Linda peaked in 1947, reaching #1 nationally. Today it ranks #902, 901 places below that high. See the whole 1947 chart.
Where it comes from
From linda to Linda
The story of Linda
The song was written in the middle of the nineteen-forties for the small daughter of the songwriter's attorney, recorded by several bands, and became a hit; the child grew up to be a photographer and to marry a Beatle. The name was already in American records before all this, in modest numbers, but its climb afterwards was extraordinarily steep and its stay at the top brief and total. Underneath the fashion sits the older meaning: in most of southern Europe the word is simply the everyday adjective for pretty, said to children constantly, which is a good part of why the name felt warm to English speakers who did not know the language.
Meaningscholars disagree
pretty
In Spanish, Portuguese and Italian linda is an ordinary adjective meaning pretty or lovely, and most modern users read the name that way. The older European Linda is a separate thing, a short form of Germanic names ending in the same syllable, and the two have merged completely in English.
How the name formed
- linda
- Linda
Related forms: Linda · Linda · Linde · Linda · Linda
Pronouncing Linda
LIN-duh
Two syllables, weight at the front. Said identically in English, Spanish, Italian and German, which almost no other name manages.
Nicknames for Linda
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
- 1947 — Buddy Clark's chart-topping song "Linda"
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 194896,220 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1reached in 1947
- Change vs 2022
- −16.5%294 in 2025, from 352
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.
Linda in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Linda in Spanish — same name
- Linda in Italian — same name
- Linde in German — related form
- Linda in Portuguese — same name
- Linda in Estonian — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Pennsylvania.
Lindas among us
people named Linda are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 5,467 born in 2025 was named Linda
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Linda
- #902
- Linda on the 2025 chart
- #651
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Linda went to 294 girls in 2025, but Lynda is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 324, which makes it the 651st most-given girls’ name of the year — 251 places above the chart.
- Linda294
- Lynda30
About 1 girl in 4,961 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 5,467 for Linda 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 Dorothy test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Linda's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Dorothy climbed just as high around 1920, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Dorothy's path sketches the road Linda is walking now.
Linda 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
Where Linda is headed
Linda should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Linda beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Linda in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is spelled and said the same way across a dozen languages without adjustment.
- The Spanish and Italian meaning is a plain, warm everyday word rather than a reconstructed root.
- Five letters, two syllables, and nothing to explain.
- It has an unbroken run in American records from the first year they were kept.
- It is one of the most generation-marked names in the language and will place a person in time immediately.
- The spelling is recorded for a small number of boys, though it reads overwhelmingly as a girl's name.
- Its two possible origins have merged so thoroughly that no family can say which one is theirs.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Linda
Feminine · #902 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Lindas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,113,000 people named Linda are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Linda?
- Linda is the most-used spelling in US records — 294 of the 324 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Lynda.
- How popular is the name Linda in 2025?
- Linda ranks #902 among US girl names in 2025, with 294 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Linda?
- About 1 in every 5,467 US girls born in 2025 was named Linda — 294 in all.
- Will my child share the name Linda with classmates?
- Linda will almost certainly be the only one in school.
- What explains the spikes and dips on Linda's chart?
- Linda climbed after 1947 — Buddy Clark's chart-topping song "Linda".
Ranked beside Linda
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Luisa#902 · Rayne#904 · Kollyns#904 · Khalani#904 · Liora#898 · Ainara#898 · Maizie#898 · Guinevere#898
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Linda? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Linda and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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