Linkoln
Masculine · “The colony at the pool”
Lincoln is a Roman colony on a British lake — Lindum colonia, where Celtic lindo, a pool, met Latin colonia. The K spelling is American and modern, and the name it respells belongs to the sixteenth president.
How old is the name Linkoln?
Linkoln first appears in US birth records in 2003 — 22 years ago. The typical Linkoln is a kid of about 8 — this name's wave is very recent. About 600 people named Linkoln are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Linkoln most popular?
Linkoln peaked in 2017, reaching #2109 nationally. Today it ranks #5608, 3,499 places below that high. See the whole 2017 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Lindum Colonia to Linkoln
The story of Linkoln
Lincoln in Lincolnshire was a legionary fortress and then a colony for retired soldiers; the cathedral built there was for two centuries the tallest building in the world. The surname came from the city and traveled to America with the Puritans. Abraham Lincoln made it a national word, and it became a boys' given name in America chiefly after 2000 — a hundred and forty years after his presidency, in the general revival of nineteenth-century surname names. That climb produced respellings, and Linkin, Lincon and Linkoln all appear, with Linkoln peaking in 2017.
Meaning
The colony at the pool
From Brittonic lindo, a lake or pool, and Latin colonia, a settlement of veterans — the Roman city of Lindum Colonia, which became Lincoln. The reading is settled and is a rare case of a place name with one Celtic and one Latin element. The K of Linkoln is an American respelling with no separate history.
How the name formed
- Lindum Colonia
- Lincoln
- Linkoln
Related forms: Lincoln · Lindum Colonia
Pronouncing Linkoln
LINK-un
Two syllables, stress on the first. The second l is silent in the standard spelling, which is what the K version obscures rather than fixes.
Nicknames for Linkoln
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
- 2003
- Most boys named
- 201765 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2109reached in 2017
- Change vs 2024
- −33.3%16 in 2025, from 24
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.
Linkoln in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Lincoln in English — spelling variant
- Lindum Colonia in Latin — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Indiana.
Linkolns among us
people named Linkoln are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 106,755 born in 2025 was named Linkoln
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Linkoln
- #5608
- Linkoln on the 2025 chart
- #75
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Linkoln went to 16 boys in 2025, but Lincoln is the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 4,726, which makes it the 75th most-given boys’ name of the year — 5,533 places above the chart.
- Lincoln4,703
- Linkoln16
and 1 rarer spelling.
About 1 boy in 361 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 106,755 for Linkoln 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 Davide test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Linkoln's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Davide climbed just as high around 1968, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Davide's path sketches the road Linkoln is walking now.
Linkoln 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
Linkoln beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Linkoln in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The place-name meaning is settled and unusually interesting.
- Link is a strong and ready short form.
- Everyone can say it after one hearing.
- Lincoln is the standard spelling and will be written for it.
- The K spelling reads as an error to anyone who knows the name.
- It is closely dated to the 2010s.
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Linkoln
Masculine · #5608 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Linkolns are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Linkoln are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Linkoln?
- Linkoln is one of 2 recorded spellings. Lincoln is the more common one — 4,703 births in 2025 against 16 for Linkoln.
- How popular is the name Linkoln in 2025?
- Linkoln ranks #5608 among US boy names in 2025, with 16 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Linkoln?
- About 1 in every 106,755 US boys born in 2025 was named Linkoln — 16 in all.
- Will my child share the name Linkoln with classmates?
- Linkoln will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Linkoln
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Rolland#5608 · Llewellyn#5608 · Arlie#5608 · Gerrit#5608 · Vinson#5608 · Georgie#5608 · Wally#5608 · Webb#5608
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Linkoln? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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