Lynden
Masculine · “linden tree”
Lynden is given to both — 1,492 boys and 780 girls since 1880. See Lynden as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Lynden is the linden tree, and the wood is soft enough that it made the shields Germanic naming named its women after.
How old is the name Lynden?
Lynden first appears in US birth records in 1915 — 110 years ago. The typical Lynden alive today was born around 1994, making them about 31 years old. About 1,200 people named Lynden are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Lynden most popular?
Lynden peaked in 1945, reaching #1581 nationally. Today it ranks #4396, 2,815 places below that high. See the whole 1945 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Lynden
Ours, offered as ours. Linden shields are a real archaeological category: the wood is light and does not split under a blade the way oak does, and Norse poetry calls a shield a lind by metonymy. That is how a tree's name got into Rosalind, Belinda and Gerlinde as an element meaning soft or gentle — by way of a weapon. As a men's name Lynden comes from the surname and the tree directly, and the shields are two removes away.
Meaning
linden tree, lime tree
From Old English lind, the linden or lime; the wood was used for shields, which is why lind became an element in Germanic women's names meaning gentle. The tree is unrelated to the citrus lime.
Pronouncing Lynden
LIN-den
Two syllables, first stressed. There is no variation in English.
Nicknames for Lynden
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
- 1915
- Most boys named
- 201735 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1581reached in 1945
- Change vs 2023
- +4.5%23 in 2025, from 22
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.
Lynden in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Linden in English — spelling variant
- Linde in German — related form
- Lind in Swedish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas.
Lyndens among us
people named Lynden are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 74,264 born in 2025 was named Lynden
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Lynden
- #4396
- Lynden on the 2025 chart
- #776
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Lynden went to 23 boys in 2025, but Linden 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 — 3,620 places above the chart.
- Linden129
- Lynden23
About 1 boy in 11,237 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 74,264 for Lynden 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 Simuel test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Lynden's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Simuel climbed just as high around 1913, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Simuel's path sketches the road Lynden is walking now.
Lynden 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
Lynden beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Lynden in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled meaning tied to a real and genuinely useful tree.
- Read correctly on sight by every English speaker.
- Six letters and two syllables, quick to write.
- Linden with an i is the standard spelling of the tree.
- It is used for both sexes, so forms may guess wrong.
- It is close to Lyndon, an American presidential surname.
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What they receive
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Lynden
Masculine · #4396 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Lyndens are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,200 people named Lynden are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Lynden?
- Lynden is one of 2 recorded spellings. Linden is the more common one — 129 births in 2025 against 23 for Lynden.
- How popular is the name Lynden in 2025?
- Lynden ranks #4396 among US boy names in 2025, with 23 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Lynden?
- About 1 in every 74,264 US boys born in 2025 was named Lynden — 23 in all.
- Will my child share the name Lynden with classmates?
- Lynden will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Lynden
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Odell#4396 · Corwin#4396 · Tennyson#4396 · Marques#4396 · Manu#4396 · Omid#4396 · Zackariah#4396 · Burton#4396
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Lynden? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Lynden and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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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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