Lindsey
- Pronunciation
- [Lin-zee]
- Gender
- Female
- Meaning
- From The Linden Tree Island
- Origin
- English
About the Name Lindsey
Lindsey is an English place-name surname derived from the Old English and Old Norse elements referring to a linden-tree settlement near water — specifically, the historical region of Lindsey in Lincolnshire, England, whose name combines a form of the Latin Lindum (Lincoln) with the Old English eg (island or watery land). The meaning "from the linden tree island" captures this geographical origin. Like its sibling spelling Lindsay, Lindsey entered American given-name use as part of the surname-as-first-name trend that accelerated strongly in the 1970s and 1980s, when surnames with soft phonetics found wide favor as feminine names.
Lindsey first entered the US Social Security top-1000 in 1980 and peaked in 1983 at rank #35 — a very rapid climb reflecting the momentum of the broader Lindsay/Lindsey naming wave. Its total top-1000 births across the tracked run exceed 147,000. The name left the top-1000 after 2019, when it sat at #956. The parallel popularity of Lindsay and Lindsey throughout this period means the two spellings functionally share a cultural identity, with Lindsey representing the slightly less common variant across most of the run.
In the contemporary landscape, both spellings of this name carry a late-1970s to 1990s generational stamp — friendly and familiar, associated with the children and young adults of that era. The soft two-syllable sound and the pleasant linden-tree etymology give it a natural, grounded character. Recorded variants include Lyndsay, Lyndsey, and Lyndsie.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Lindsey
US Popularity History (1980–2019)
Annual US births named Lindsey by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 1984 with 9,006 girls named Lindsey (girl rank #35 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2019, ranked #956 for girls (276 US births). That's 921 places below its 1984 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 Lindsey 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 Lindsey the strongest states are Arkansas, Utah, Kentucky.
Strongest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arkansas | #566 | 24 |
| 2 | Utah | #577 | 37 |
| 3 | Kentucky | #613 | 44 |
| 4 | Alabama | #690 | 28 |
| 5 | South Carolina | #758 | 17 |
| 6 | Virginia | #760 | 52 |
| 7 | Indiana | #776 | 51 |
| 8 | New Jersey | #786 | 50 |
| 9 | Tennessee | #795 | 45 |
| 10 | North Carolina | #799 | 47 |
Weakest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Florida | #1,162 | 41 |
| 2 | California | #1,039 | 128 |
| 3 | Ohio | #973 | 53 |
| 4 | Pennsylvania | #973 | 60 |
| 5 | Michigan | #952 | 37 |
| 6 | Massachusetts | #942 | 20 |
| 7 | Maryland | #863 | 30 |
| 8 | Washington | #863 | 30 |
| 9 | Georgia | #829 | 66 |
| 10 | Minnesota | #828 | 25 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Lindsey in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
Looking for names like Lindsey?
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 Lindsey to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Lindsey against today's most popular girls-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).