Lindsay
Lindsay was given to 84 girls in 2025, #2,208 among girls’ names; 135,501 Americans have been recorded with it since 1880 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 129,000 Americans named Lindsay and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (95% of everyone recorded); the median is 39 years old and half are between 33 and 44.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Lindsay by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Lindsay mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Lindsay is “a female given name transferred from the surname, of 1940s and later usage.” Its etymology gives the senses “Isle of Lind” (Lindesīġe) and “Lind” (which) and “isle” (and).
Also “a male given name transferred from the surname.”
From Lindsey in Lincolnshire, from Old English Lindesēġe, Lindesīġe (“Isle of Lind”), the Old English name of the city of Lincoln, Lincolnshire, in which “Lind” comes from the Common Brittonic form of the name of Lincoln and “isle” refers to Lincoln being surrounded by fenland; from Proto-Brythonic *llɨnn (“pool”), from Proto-Celtic *lindos (“lake, liquid”), in reference to the Brayford + Old English ēġ (“island”); cf. modern Welsh llyn and Dublin.
/ˈlɪnzi/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Lindsay?
#2,208 among girls’ names, 2025
Lindsay fell from #853 in 2015 to #2,208 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 0.18 to 0.05 per 1,000.
8,713 babies in 1983, the peak
Lindsay peaked in 1983, when 8,713 babies were given it (8,622 girls, #36 among girls’ names). The 84 births of 2025 are under 1% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 84 | #2,208 | 0.05 |
| 2024 | 99 | #1,985 | 0.06 |
| 2023 | 93 | #2,084 | 0.06 |
| 2022 | 117 | #1,770 | 0.07 |
| 2021 | 148 | #1,456 | 0.09 |
| 2020 | 124 | #1,663 | 0.08 |
| 2019 | 144 | #1,512 | 0.09 |
| 2018 | 174 | #1,311 | 0.10 |
| 2017 | 217 | #1,147 | 0.13 |
| 2016 | 259 | #1,024 | 0.15 |
Every recorded year (94)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 328 | #853 | 0.18 |
| 2014 | 433 | #662 | 0.24 |
| 2013 | 412 | #687 | 0.23 |
| 2012 | 396 | #710 | 0.22 |
| 2011 | 435 | #655 | 0.25 |
| 2010 | 492 | #597 | 0.28 |
| 2009 | 575 | #527 | 0.31 |
| 2008 | 848 | #382 | 0.45 |
| 2007 | 1,067 | #316 | 0.55 |
| 2006 | 1,248 | #263 | 0.66 |
| 2005 | 1,398 | #240 | 0.76 |
| 2004 | 1,354 | #241 | 0.74 |
| 2003 | 1,229 | #260 | 0.67 |
| 2002 | 1,241 | #255 | 0.69 |
| 2001 | 1,502 | #210 | 0.83 |
| 2000 | 1,800 | #179 | 1.0 |
| 1999 | 1,849 | #169 | 1.0 |
| 1998 | 1,939 | #161 | 1.1 |
| 1997 | 2,086 | #149 | 1.2 |
| 1996 | 2,397 | #134 | 1.4 |
| 1995 | 2,562 | #125 | 1.5 |
| 1994 | 3,100 | #107 | 1.7 |
| 1993 | 3,664 | #88 | 2.0 |
| 1992 | 4,262 | #81 | 2.3 |
| 1991 | 4,483 | #77 | 2.4 |
| 1990 | 5,040 | #69 | 2.7 |
| 1989 | 5,525 | #63 | 3.0 |
| 1988 | 6,025 | #57 | 3.4 |
| 1987 | 6,530 | #49 | 3.8 |
| 1986 | 6,952 | #46 | 4.1 |
| 1985 | 7,871 | #40 | 4.6 |
| 1984 | 8,510 | #36 | 5.1 |
| 1983 | 8,622 | #36 | 5.2 |
| 1982 | 8,260 | #39 | 4.9 |
| 1981 | 5,843 | #47 | 3.5 |
| 1980 | 4,353 | #71 | 2.6 |
| 1979 | 3,466 | #88 | 2.2 |
| 1978 | 3,123 | #95 | 2.0 |
| 1977 | 2,635 | #110 | 1.7 |
| 1976 | 2,070 | #133 | 1.4 |
| 1975 | 515 | #396 | 0.35 |
| 1974 | 213 | #691 | 0.15 |
| 1973 | 115 | #1,019 | 0.08 |
| 1972 | 62 | #1,521 | 0.04 |
| 1971 | 77 | #1,385 | 0.05 |
| 1970 | 82 | #1,312 | 0.05 |
| 1969 | 61 | #1,523 | 0.04 |
| 1968 | 70 | #1,332 | 0.04 |
| 1967 | 48 | #1,649 | 0.03 |
| 1966 | 59 | #1,440 | 0.03 |
| 1965 | 50 | #1,585 | 0.03 |
| 1964 | 53 | #1,567 | 0.03 |
| 1963 | 69 | #1,336 | 0.04 |
| 1962 | 61 | #1,423 | 0.03 |
| 1961 | 58 | #1,476 | 0.03 |
| 1960 | 54 | #1,511 | 0.03 |
| 1959 | 69 | #1,295 | 0.03 |
| 1958 | 81 | #1,183 | 0.04 |
| 1957 | 98 | #1,051 | 0.05 |
| 1956 | 83 | #1,136 | 0.04 |
| 1955 | 92 | #1,051 | 0.05 |
| 1954 | 77 | #1,125 | 0.04 |
| 1953 | 95 | #981 | 0.05 |
| 1952 | 125 | #814 | 0.07 |
| 1951 | 112 | #848 | 0.06 |
| 1950 | 116 | #809 | 0.07 |
| 1949 | 83 | #988 | 0.05 |
| 1948 | 68 | #1,078 | 0.04 |
| 1947 | 59 | #1,176 | 0.03 |
| 1946 | 31 | #1,606 | 0.02 |
| 1945 | 18 | #2,025 | 0.01 |
| 1944 | 22 | #1,838 | 0.02 |
| 1943 | 15 | #2,395 | 0.01 |
| 1942 | 12 | #2,741 | 0.01 |
| 1941 | 9 | #3,150 | 0.01 |
| 1940 | 10 | #2,873 | 0.01 |
| 1939 | 5 | #4,613 | under 0.01 |
| 1938 | 6 | #4,114 | 0.01 |
| 1937 | 8 | #3,314 | 0.01 |
| 1936 | 15 | #2,100 | 0.01 |
| 1928 | 7 | #3,999 | 0.01 |
| 1926 | 7 | #4,101 | 0.01 |
| 1921 | 5 | #5,548 | under 0.01 |
| 1916 | 6 | #4,173 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Lindsay a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 135,501 Americans recorded as Lindsay, 96% are girls and 4% boys. Girls have outnumbered boys among babies named Lindsay every year since 1966. In 2025 it went to 84 girls; SSA lists no boys with it that year (fewer than 5, or none).
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Lindsay: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Lindsay, and how old are they?
129,000 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 95% of the 135,501 Americans ever recorded as Lindsay. The median Lindsay alive today is 39 years old; half are between 33 and 44.
The 2020 Census counted 122,638 people named Lindsay (119,745 women and girls, 2,893 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 129,842 born in the U.S. The Census count is 6% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 201 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 2,390 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 16,800 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 87,700 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 19,300 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 2,650 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Lindsay born?
The states with the most babies named Lindsay are California, New York and Pennsylvania, with 22% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 12,736 | #3,347 | 0.7× |
| New York | 8,694 | #1,965 | 0.9× |
| Pennsylvania | 7,641 | not ranked | 1.2× |
| Ohio | 7,246 | not ranked | 1.2× |
| Texas | 7,115 | #1,507 | 0.6× |
| Michigan | 5,976 | not ranked | 1.1× |
| Illinois | 5,827 | not ranked | 0.9× |
| Florida | 4,696 | #2,048 | 0.8× |
| New Jersey | 4,117 | not ranked | 1.1× |
| Massachusetts | 4,013 | #952 | 1.2× |
Where Lindsay is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Lindsay is most over-represented in Connecticut: since 1910 it was given 1.3 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Lindsay with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 326,448 babies since 1880, Lindsay is the second most given (42% of them). In 2025 it was given to 84 of their 259 babies (32%), again the second most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Lindsay
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Lindsay and names like it
- Compare Lindsay and LindseyBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1980sLindsay peaked in 1983.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Lindsay since 1910.
- From surnamesWiktionary’s origin for Lindsay: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1983The year the most babies were named Lindsay.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Lindsay alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with LMost given first.