Linda
Masculine · “pretty”
Linda is given to girls far more often — 1,455,143 girls against 3,756 boys since 1880. See Linda as a girl 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 first appears in US birth records in 1925 — 100 years ago. The typical Linda alive today was born around 1953, making them about 72 years old. About 2,500 people named Linda are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Linda most popular?
Linda peaked in 1947, reaching #457 nationally. 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
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1925
- Most boys named
- 1948207 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #457reached in 1947
- Change vs 1993
- +57.1%11 in 1994, from 7
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
Lindas among us
people named Linda are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Linda sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
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.
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What they receive
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Linda
Masculine
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 2,500 people named Linda are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Linda in 2025?
- Linda is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Linda with classmates?
- Linda will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More L names
The most-given names starting with L, all years combined.
Larry#1084 · Lawrence#518 · Louis#249 · Logan#53 · Liam#1 · Lucas#10 · Luke#33 · Leonard#637
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Linda? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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