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Linda vs Lindal

American parents have registered 1,458,899 Lindas since 1880, against 35 Lindals. Linda is still ahead, with 294 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Linda against Lindal, 1880 to 2025 0 25k 50k 75k 100k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Linda Lindal

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Linda has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1942, when Linda had 31,734 and Lindal had 11.

Side by side

  Linda Lindal
Total US births 1,458,89935
Most in one year 99,90811
Babies in 2025 294under 5
Estimated living today 1.1 million17
Median age today 7282
Peak year 19471941
Best rank 1st girls2,872nd boys
Rank in 2025 902ndunranked
First recorded 18801941
Girls / boys 1,455,143 / 3,7565 / 30

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Lindals alive today are over 82; half the Lindas are over 72. That is 10 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Linda and Lindal.