Lindsay
Masculine · “Lincoln's island”
Lindsay is given to both — 5,136 boys and 130,365 girls since 1880. See Lindsay as a girl 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 was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Lindsay alive today was born around 1957, making them about 68 years old. About 3,000 people named Lindsay are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Lindsay most popular?
Lindsay peaked in 1893, reaching #391 nationally. See the whole 1893 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
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
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 1960152 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #391reached in 1893
- Change vs 2014
- −12.5%7 in 2021, from 8
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.
Lindsays among us
people named Lindsay 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
Lindsay 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 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.
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Lindsay
Masculine
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 3,000 people named Lindsay are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Lindsay in 2025?
- Lindsay is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Lindsay with classmates?
- Lindsay 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 Lindsay? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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