Lindsay
- Pronunciation
- [Lin-zee]
- Gender
- Female
- Meaning
- A Lake: A Place Of Linden Trees.
- Origin
- Scottish
About the Name Lindsay
Lindsay is a Scottish surname and place-name whose Old English and Old Norse roots point to a settlement among linden trees near water — derived from a historical Scottish noble family name connected to the region of Lindsey in Lincolnshire. The meaning "a lake, a place of linden trees" captures this geographical and botanical origin. The de Lindsey family was a prominent Norman-Scottish noble house, and the surname carried aristocratic associations in medieval Scotland before entering the common name stock. As a feminine given name in America, Lindsay belongs to the surname-as-first-name wave of the late 20th century, when Scottish and English surnames with clean phonetics became particularly fashionable for girls.
Lindsay Lohan (born 1986) is an American actress whose career has produced multiple defining American teen-comedy roles, plus substantial public visibility through tabloid coverage of her personal life in the late 2000s.
Lindsay first entered the US Social Security top-1000 as a feminine name in 1978 and peaked in 1983 at rank #36, accumulating over 107,000 top-1000 births across its tracked run. It left the top-1000 after 2015, when it sat at #852. The near-simultaneous popularity of the variant spelling Lindsey means the two forms share a generational identity, with Lindsay being the slightly more common spelling overall. Recorded variants include Lind, Lindsey, Linsay, Linsey, Lyndsay, Lyndsey, Lyndsie, Lynsey, and Lynzey.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Lindsay
US Popularity History (1978–2015)
Annual US births named Lindsay by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 1983 with 8,622 girls named Lindsay (girl rank #36 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2015, ranked #852 for girls (328 US births). That's 816 places below its 1983 peak.
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Where in the US Is Lindsay Most Popular?
Average girl-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's girls-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Lindsay the strongest states are Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey.
Strongest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Virginia | #662 | 35 |
| 2 | Maryland | #698 | 24 |
| 3 | New Jersey | #756 | 40 |
| 4 | Massachusetts | #868 | 22 |
| 5 | North Carolina | #875 | 31 |
Weakest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | North Carolina | #875 | 31 |
| 2 | Massachusetts | #868 | 22 |
| 3 | New Jersey | #756 | 40 |
| 4 | Maryland | #698 | 24 |
| 5 | Virginia | #662 | 35 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Lindsay in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
| Name | Meaning | Gender | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lind | Lives By The Linden Tree | Male | English |
| Lindsey | From The Linden Tree Island | Female | English |
| Linsay | Lincoln's island | Female | English |
| Linsey | A Lake: A Place Of Linden Trees. | Female | Scottish |
| Lyndsay | Variant Of Lindsey From The Linden Tree Island | Female | English |
| Lyndsey | A Lake: A Place Of Linden Trees. | Female | Scottish |
| Lyndsie | Variant Of Lindsey From The Linden Tree Island | Female | English |
| Lynsey | Variant Of Lindsey From The Linden Tree Island | Female | English |
| Lynzey | Derived From Lindsay Or Lindsey | Female | American |
Famous People Named Lindsay
1 notable figure from history and culture who share the name Lindsay.
- Lindsay Lohan — Movie Actress (1986)
Looking for names like Lindsay?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Lindsay to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Lindsay against today's most popular girls-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).
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