Lindsay
Feminine · “Lincoln's island”
Lindsay is given to both — 130,365 girls and 5,136 boys since 1880. See Lindsay as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Lindsay is the Scottish spelling and Lindsey the English one, and the difference is older than either country's use of it as a first name. The district in Lincolnshire is Lindsey; the family who took the name north and became earls spelled themselves Lindsay. Both are correct and they point at different halves of the same history.
How old is the name Lindsay?
Lindsay first appears in US birth records in 1916 — 109 years ago. The typical Lindsay alive today was born around 1987, making them about 38 years old. About 127,000 people named Lindsay are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Lindsay most popular?
Lindsay peaked in 1983, reaching #36 nationally. Today it ranks #2194, 2,158 places below that high. See the whole 1983 chart.
Lindsay appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From Lindesig to Lindsay
The story of Lindsay
A Norman family granted Scottish lands took the Lincolnshire name with them and became one of the great houses of Scotland, earls of Crawford and holders of high office for centuries. That is why the -ay spelling reads as Scottish: it belonged to the family rather than to the district. When the name crossed to American given names it went to boys first, as surname-names generally do, and moved decisively to girls in the later twentieth century, at which point the two spellings drifted apart by sex without anyone deciding it.
Meaningscholars disagree
Lincoln's island
The Lincolnshire district is read as the old British name behind Lincoln plus the Old English eg, an island — high ground surrounded by fen, which it genuinely was before drainage. The first element's own meaning, probably a word for a pool, is reconstructed. As a surname it records where a family came from rather than describing anything, and by the time it is a first name it is two removes from the marsh.
How the name formed
- Lindesig
- Lindsey
- Lindsay
Pronouncing Lindsay
LIN-zee
LIN-zee, two syllables, stress at the front, the s voiced as a z between vowels. Lindsay and Lindsey are said identically; the ending is the only difference and it has never been audible.
Nicknames for Lindsay
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
- 1916
- Most girls named
- 19838,622 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #36reached in 1983
- Change vs 2023
- −9.7%84 in 2025, from 93
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.
Lindsay in other languages
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, New York.
Lindsays among us
people named Lindsay are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 19,134 born in 2025 was named Lindsay
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Gail test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Lindsay's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Gail climbed just as high around 1951, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Gail's path sketches the road Lindsay is walking now.
Lindsay 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 Lindsay is headed
Lindsay is easing off slowly — about 17% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
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.
Lindsay beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Lindsay in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It has a documented English district and a major Scottish family behind it.
- Lin works as a short form and is a complete name of its own.
- The -ay spelling is the historically Scottish one rather than a modern variant.
- Lindsey is equally standard and the name will be written both ways for life.
- It is still a men's name in Britain, so the spelling reads differently on the other side of the Atlantic.
- It is closely tied to one American generation and dates a person fairly precisely.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Lindsay to the vote.
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What they receive
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Lindsay
Feminine · #2194 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Lindsays are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 127,000 people named Lindsay are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Lindsay in 2025?
- Lindsay ranks #2194 among US girl names in 2025, with 84 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Lindsay?
- About 1 in every 19,134 US girls born in 2025 was named Lindsay — 84 in all.
- Will my child share the name Lindsay with classmates?
- Lindsay will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Lindsay
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Asia#2194 · Zaila#2194 · Addalyn#2194 · Caylee#2194 · Olympia#2194 · Janna#2194 · Aqsa#2194 · Samiya#2194
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Lindsay? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Lindsay and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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