Humanverse

Lindsay vs Linwood

American parents have registered 135,501 Lindsays since 1880, against 12,781 Linwoods. Lindsay is still ahead, with 84 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Lindsay Linwood

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 146 years in which either name was published, Linwood for 77 years and Lindsay for 69 years. The lead changed hands 16 times.

12 shorter spells of a year or two are folded into the spans above rather than listed separately.

Side by side

  Lindsay Linwood
Total US births 135,50112,781
Most in one year 8,713276
Babies in 2025 84under 5
Estimated living today 129,0005,700
Median age today 3865
Peak year 19831948
Best rank 36th girls409th boys
Rank in 2025 2,194thunranked
First recorded 18801880
Girls / boys 130,365 / 5,1365 / 12,776

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 Linwoods alive today are over 65; half the Lindsays are over 38. That is 27 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: Lindsay and Linwood.