Linden
Masculine · “Linden tree”
Linden is given to both — 4,102 boys and 1,998 girls since 1880. See Linden as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Linden is the tree — the broad, sweet-smelling lime of European village squares, called basswood on this side of the Atlantic. Berlin's great boulevard has been Unter den Linden, "under the linden trees," since the seventeenth century, and in old German towns the village linden was where courts sat and dances were held. The name says LIN-den on first sight, which is more than most tree names manage.
How old is the name Linden?
Linden first appears in US birth records in 1889 — 136 years ago. The typical Linden alive today was born around 1994, making them about 31 years old. About 3,100 people named Linden are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Linden most popular?
Linden peaked in 1947, reaching #923 nationally. Today it ranks #1409, 486 places below that high. See the whole 1947 chart.
Linden appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From lind (Old English: linden tree, linden shield) to Linden
The story of Linden
The word is old Germanic and unchanged in sense: lind in Old English, Linde in German, linde in Dutch, always the linden or lime tree. It became a surname wherever people lived beside one — van der Linden is among the most common surnames in the Netherlands, and Linden turns up as a place name across Germany, Belgium and England. English-speakers took it up as a given name in the usual way, by lifting a family surname to the front, and it has appeared in American birth records since the late nineteenth century without ever going away. It sits in the small company of nature names that were used long before nature names were a trend.
Meaning
Linden tree
From the Germanic word for the tree: Old English lind, German Linde, Dutch linde. In Old English verse lind also stood in for a shield, since shields were built of linden wood.
How the name formed
- lindOld English: linden tree, linden shield
- Linde / lindeGerman
- van der LindenDutch surname
- Lindensurname and place name
- Lindengiven name
Related forms: Linde · Linde · Lind · Lyndon · Lindon
Pronouncing Linden
LIN-den
Two syllables, stress on the first, second syllable unstressed as in garden. Most people read it correctly on sight because the tree and the surname are both familiar.
Nicknames for Linden
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
- 1889
- Most boys named
- 2025129 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #923reached in 1947
- Change vs 2023
- +35.8%129 in 2025, from 95
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.
Linden in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Linde in German — related form
- Linde in Dutch — related form
- Lind in Swedish — related form
- Lyndon in English — related form
- Lindon in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, New York, Texas.
Lindens among us
people named Linden are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 13,241 born in 2025 was named Linden
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Linden
- #1409
- Linden on the 2025 chart
- #776
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Linden went to 129 boys in 2025, but Lynden is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 152, which makes it the 776th most-given boys’ name of the year — 633 places above the chart.
- Linden129
- Lynden23
About 1 boy in 11,237 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 13,241 for Linden 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 Nello test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Linden's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Nello climbed just as high around 1915, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Nello's path sketches the road Linden is walking now.
Linden 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 Linden is headed
Linden should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium 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.
Linden beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Linden in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled the way it sounds and read correctly on first sight — no dictating letters over the phone.
- A word with an unbroken documented history in Germanic languages, and a continuous run in American birth records since the nineteenth century.
- Recognizable across German, Dutch and Scandinavian speakers as their word for the same tree.
- Ready-made short forms in Lin and Lindy, both already in real use.
- A nature name that predates the current wave of them, so it carries no date stamp.
- It sits very close to Lyndon and to Linda, and a fair number of people will hear or write one of those instead. Expect a lifetime of gentle corrections rather than blank incomprehension.
- American records put Linden almost entirely on the boys' side, but the Lin- opening is shared with Linda and Lynn, so the occasional stranger will assume a girl before meeting him.
- It is rare enough that a classroom is unlikely to hold a second one — lovely if you want that, worth knowing if your child would rather have a name others already own.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Linden
Masculine · #1409 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Lindens are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,100 people named Linden are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Linden?
- Linden is the most-used spelling in US records — 129 of the 152 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Lynden.
- How popular is the name Linden in 2025?
- Linden ranks #1409 among US boy names in 2025, with 129 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Linden?
- About 1 in every 13,241 US boys born in 2025 was named Linden — 129 in all.
- Will my child share the name Linden with classmates?
- Linden will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Linden
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Dale#1409 · Iverson#1409 · Virgil#1409 · Kolt#1409 · Huxton#1409 · Fox#1409 · Malikai#1409 · Cayde#1409
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Linden? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Linden and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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