Lynwood
Masculine · “the lime-tree wood”
Lynwood is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 4,163 boys against 5 girls since 1880.
Lynwood belongs to a small American family of names built on the same last syllable: Elwood, Garwood, Sherwood, Linwood, Lynwood. Each began as an English place, became a surname, and then moved to the front of the name, mostly in the American South.
How old is the name Lynwood?
Lynwood first appears in US birth records in 1898 — 127 years ago. The typical Lynwood alive today was born around 1945, making them about 80 years old. About 2,000 people named Lynwood are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Lynwood most popular?
Lynwood peaked in 1935, reaching #541 nationally. See the whole 1935 chart.
Where it comes from
From Linwood to Lynwood
The story of Lynwood
Wood names entered American use the way most surnames did, moving to the front of the name and staying there, and this group did particularly well in Virginia and the Carolinas, where Elwood, Garwood and Linwood all appear together in the record. Lynwood is the y-spelled member of the set. It also has a place of its own on the map: a city in Los Angeles County was named Lynwood for Lynn Wood Sessions, the wife of a local dairyman, and incorporated under that name in 1921, which makes it a rare case of a woman's two names becoming a place name that now reads to most Americans as a man's.
Meaningscholars disagree
the lime-tree wood, or the wood by the pool
The second half is plainly the Old English wudu. The first is not settled: lin can be the lime tree, while lyn is a northern and Welsh word for a pool or waterfall, so a Linwood and a Lynwood need not mean the same thing. The y spelling also pulls the name toward Lynn, which is a name in its own right.
How the name formed
- Linwood
- Lynwood
Pronouncing Lynwood
LIN-wood
Two syllables, weight at the front, the y said as a short i. Both halves are ordinary English words and neither hides anything.
Nicknames for Lynwood
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
- 1898
- Most boys named
- 1935114 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #541reached in 1935
- Change vs 2014
- 0.0%5 in 2022, from 5
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.
Lynwoods among us
people named Lynwood 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
Lynwood 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
- Both halves are common English words, so nobody has to be taught how to say it.
- Woody is a ready-made short form that no family has to invent.
- It sits inside a settled American group of names and is read as part of it rather than as an oddity.
- Linwood is the commoner spelling and people will default to the i.
- The spelling is recorded for girls as well as boys, and the Lyn- opening pulls it that way, so on paper it does not settle who is meant.
- It reads clearly as a name of the first half of the twentieth century.
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What they receive
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Lynwood
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Lynwoods are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,000 people named Lynwood are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Lynwood in 2025?
- Lynwood is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Lynwood with classmates?
- Lynwood 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 Lynwood? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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