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Lindell vs Lindsay

American parents have registered 135,501 Lindsays since 1880, against 2,792 Lindells. Lindsay is still ahead, with 84 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Lindell Lindsay

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

Of the 142 years in which either name was published, Lindsay for 137 years and Lindell for 5 years. The lead changed hands 6 times.

Side by side

  Lindell Lindsay
Total US births 2,792135,501
Most in one year 918,713
Babies in 2025 under 584
Estimated living today 1,600129,000
Median age today 6638
Peak year 19491983
Best rank 817th boys36th girls
Rank in 2025 unranked2,194th
First recorded 19131880
Girls / boys 357 / 2,435130,365 / 5,136

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 Lindells alive today are over 66; half the Lindsays are over 38. That is 28 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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