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Lindal vs Lindsey

American parents have registered 165,286 Lindseys since 1880, against 35 Lindals. Lindsey is still ahead, with 161 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Lindal against Lindsey, 1880 to 2025 0 2.5k 5k 7.5k 10k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Lindal Lindsey

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

Lindsey 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 Lindal had 11 and Lindsey had 71.

Side by side

  Lindal Lindsey
Total US births 35165,286
Most in one year 119,119
Babies in 2025 under 5161
Estimated living today 17158,000
Median age today 8236
Peak year 19411984
Best rank 2,872nd boys35th girls
Rank in 2025 unranked1,367th
First recorded 19411880
Girls / boys 5 / 30157,551 / 7,735

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 Lindseys are over 36. That is 46 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: Lindal and Lindsey.