Lynn
Masculine · “lake”
Lynn is given to both — 52,391 boys and 182,387 girls since 1880. See Lynn as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Lynn is water. The Welsh llyn means a lake or a pool, and the English surname built on it belonged to families who lived by one — which is how the word became a name for people.
How old is the name Lynn?
Lynn was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Lynn alive today was born around 1948, making them about 77 years old. About 27,500 people named Lynn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Lynn most popular?
Lynn peaked in 1941, reaching #141 nationally. Today it ranks #5861, 5,720 places below that high. See the whole 1941 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From llyn to Lynn
The story of Lynn
Place names built on llyn are scattered across Wales and the English border counties, and the families who came from them carried the word as a surname. Surnames became given names in nineteenth and twentieth-century America as a matter of course, and Lynn was masculine first: it stood in the top hundred and forty for boys around 1941. The feminine use, arriving from Linda and Carolyn rather than from Wales, then overtook it decisively.
Meaningscholars disagree
lake, pool
The usual account gives the Welsh llyn, 'lake' — the element in Lynmouth and in the Lake District's tarns. A competing reading treats the surname as English, from a place name meaning a torrent or a pool, from the same Celtic root. Where the name is used as a short form of Lyndon or Linwood, it carries no meaning of its own.
How the name formed
- llyn
- Lynn
Related forms: Llyn · Lyn · Linn
Pronouncing Lynn
LIN
One syllable. Lynn, Lyn and Linn are said identically, and the Welsh llyn uses a sound English does not have at the front.
Nicknames for Lynn
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
- 19511,669 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #141reached in 1941
- Change vs 2022
- +15.4%15 in 2025, from 13
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.
Lynn in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Llyn in Welsh — related form
- Lyn in English — spelling variant
- Linn in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas.
Lynns among us
people named Lynn are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 113,872 born in 2025 was named Lynn
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 Johnie test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Lynn's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Johnie climbed just as high around 1908, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Johnie's path sketches the road Lynn is walking now.
Lynn 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
Lynn beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Lynn in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is concrete and easy to picture, which is unusual for a surname-name.
- One syllable, four letters, and never misheard in any accent.
- It works as a middle name unusually well, which is where a great many bearers carry it.
- In American use the name now reads as feminine to most people.
- Three spellings are current and none settles the sex.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Lynn
Masculine · #5861 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Lynns are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 27,500 people named Lynn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Lynn in 2025?
- Lynn ranks #5861 among US boy names in 2025, with 15 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Lynn?
- About 1 in every 113,872 US boys born in 2025 was named Lynn — 15 in all.
- Will my child share the name Lynn with classmates?
- Lynn will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Lynn
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Eber#5861 · Wilton#5861 · Ruby#5861 · Stacy#5861 · Garner#5861 · Caldwell#5861 · Severin#5861 · Newton#5861
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Lynn? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Lynn and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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