Linley
Feminine · “flax clearing”
Linley is given to both — 1,662 girls and 84 boys since 1880. See other names given to both
Linley is an English place-and-family name from a landscape — a clearing where flax was grown, or one edged with lime trees. It has been a surname for many centuries and a first name for a few decades.
How old is the name Linley?
Linley first appears in US birth records in 1952 — 73 years ago. The typical Linley is a kid of about 12 — this name's wave is very recent. About 1,600 people named Linley are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Linley most popular?
Linley peaked in 2021, reaching #2119 nationally. Today it ranks #3167, 1,048 places below that high. See the whole 2021 chart.
Linley appears on this list:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Linley
England had several settlements named Linley, in Shropshire and Staffordshire among others, and families took their names from them when surnames fixed. Flax was grown widely enough that a field named for it was a useful landmark; lime trees were equally common. As a given name Linley is recent and belongs with Kinley, Finley and Everly — the -ley group that American naming has favored for girls in the last two decades.
Meaningscholars disagree
flax clearing, or lime-tree clearing
The second element is settled: Old English leah, a clearing in woodland. The first is read either as lin, flax, or as lind, the lime or linden tree — both are real Old English words and both produced place names.
Pronouncing Linley
LIN-lee
Two syllables, first stressed. There is no variation.
Nicknames for Linley
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
- 1952
- Most girls named
- 202189 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2119reached in 2021
- Change vs 2024
- −13.8%50 in 2025, from 58
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.
Linley in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Lindley in English — related form
- Linly in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Tennessee, Georgia.
Linleys among us
people named Linley are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 32,145 born in 2025 was named Linley
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Linley
- #3167
- Linley on the 2025 chart
- #874
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Linley went to 50 girls in 2025, but Lynley and Lynnley are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 86, which makes it the 874th most-given girls’ name of the year — 2,293 places above the chart.
- Linley50
- Lynley22
- Lynnley14
About 1 girl in 18,689 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 32,145 for Linley 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 Teah test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Linley's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Teah climbed just as high around 1981, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Teah's path sketches the road Linley is walking now.
Linley 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 Linley is headed
Linley 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.
Linley beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Linley in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A documented English place-name meaning drawn from a real landscape.
- Two syllables and six letters, easy to write and impossible to mispronounce.
- Lin and Lee are both plain short forms that carry into adult life.
- Lindley, Linsley and Kinley are all close enough to be written by mistake.
- It sits in a crowded group of -ley girls' names and may sound of its decade.
- The two possible meanings are both plausible, so the answer to what it means is a fork.
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What they receive
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Linley
Feminine · #3167 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Linleys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,600 people named Linley are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Linley?
- Linley is the most-used spelling in US records — 50 of the 86 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Lynley and Lynnley.
- How popular is the name Linley in 2025?
- Linley ranks #3167 among US girl names in 2025, with 50 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Linley?
- About 1 in every 32,145 US girls born in 2025 was named Linley — 50 in all.
- Will my child share the name Linley with classmates?
- Linley will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Linley
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Lulu#3167 · Lucina#3167 · Irma#3167 · Leyna#3167 · Skylee#3167 · Amairani#3167 · Jorja#3167 · Jozie#3167
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Linley? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Linley and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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