Lindsey
Meaning
variant of Lindsay, from the Lindsey region in Lincolnshire; Celtic 'lake' + Old English 'island'
The story
Lindsey is an English place name from Lincolnshire, and its meaning is genuinely disputed. The popular reading is island of linden trees, from Old English lind and eg. Scholars more often derive the first part from Lindum, the Roman-British name behind Lincoln, with eg added because the district sat virtually cut off by fenland. Early spellings run Lindisse in 627 and Lindissi by 678. Either way it became an aristocratic surname, then crossed into first-name use on both sides of the Atlantic. Present at trace levels from the 1890s, it swung decisively to girls in the American record after mid-century and held a long peak across the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s alongside its sibling spelling Lindsay, the two trading places for thirty years. The fall since has been steep, the usual fate of era-defining favorites, and its arc records one of the cleanest boy-to-girl migrations in the modern American book.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Lindsey peaked in the 1980s and the 2000s in nearly equal measure.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
801 people · the #9,674 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 250,000 · median age 15
Among people named Lindsey living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 2010s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 61 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Lindsey
Most people given the name Lindsey in the United States were born between 1980 and 1999. The Lindsey you meet today is most often in her 30s or 40s.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Lindsey deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Lindsey truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Lindsey fits with your family’s names and surname.
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