Linda
A feminine name derived from the Spanish 'linda' meaning beautiful, tender.
Name Census estimates that about 930,356 living Americans carry the first name Linda. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Linda today is around 70 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Linda births was 1947 (99,909 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Linda. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Linda with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Linda is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 3,756 boys registered with the name since 1880.
- • The typical person named Linda is about 70 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Lindas were born before 1966.
- • Compared to the 1950s, recent registration numbers for Linda have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
930K
~ 1 in 368 Americans
Peak year
1947
99,909 babies that year
Average age
70
years old
1994 SSA rank
#835
Tracked since 1880
Census
Linda in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,164,879 people with the first name Linda, which placed it at #20 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#20
National first-name rank
People counted
1.2M
1,164,879 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
385.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
82.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Linda
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Linda is White at 82.5%. The next largest groups are Black (8.0%) and Hispanic (5.0%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Linda described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Linda at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White82.5% · 960,548
- Black or African American8.0% · 92,983
- Hispanic or Latino5.0% · 57,895
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.1% · 24,222
- Two or more races2.0% · 23,257
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 5,974
Gender
Gender distribution for Linda
Out of the 1,458,588 babies given the name Linda since 1880, 99.7% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Linda as a male name
- Ranked #5,307 in 1994
- 11 male births in 1994
- Peak: 1947 (216 births)
Linda as a female name
- Ranked #835 in 2024
- 321 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1947 (99,693 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Linda appears almost entirely female. Of the 1,164,876 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Linda: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Linda from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 565,532 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Linda by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Linda during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Lindas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, New York, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Linda, while Alaska, Nevada, Wyoming recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 28,462 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Linda
The name Linda is a feminine given name of Spanish and Portuguese origin, derived from the Spanish word "linda" meaning "pretty" or "beautiful." The name has its roots in the Latin word "linda," which translates to "beautiful" or "lovely."
The first recorded use of the name Linda dates back to the Middle Ages in Spain and Portugal. It was initially used as a descriptive term to describe a beautiful or attractive woman. Over time, it transitioned into being used as a proper given name.
In the 16th century, the name Linda gained popularity across Europe, particularly in Spain, Portugal, and Italy. During this period, several notable figures bore the name, including Linda de Camões (1524-1580), a Portuguese poet and sister of the famous writer Luís de Camões.
As the name spread across different cultures and languages, variations emerged, such as Lind or Linde in German, Lindi in Hindi, and Lindi or Lindis in Greek. However, the original Spanish and Portuguese form, Linda, remained the most widely recognized and used.
Throughout history, several influential women have borne the name Linda. One of the earliest notable figures was Linda de Hijar (c. 1300), a Spanish noblewoman and lady-in-waiting to Queen Maria de Molina of Castile.
In the 20th century, the name gained even more popularity, particularly in the United States. Some famous Lindas include Linda Ronstadt (born 1946), an American singer and songwriter; Linda Evangelista (born 1965), a Canadian model; and Linda Lovelace (1949-2002), an American pornographic actress and feminist activist.
Other notable Lindas throughout history include Linda Nochlin (1931-2017), an American art historian and feminist scholar; Linda Hunt (born 1945), an American actress known for her role in The Year of Living Dangerously; and Linda Vaughn (born 1943), an American motorsports personality and former actress.
The name Linda has endured through the centuries, maintaining its association with beauty and femininity. While its popularity has fluctuated over time, it remains a beloved and widely recognized name across various cultures and regions.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Linda
People
Linda + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Linda as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with L
Other first names starting with L with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Linda: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Linda?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 930,356 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Linda going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 368 US residents.
Is Linda a common name?
We classify Linda as "Very Common". It ranks above 100% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,458,588 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Linda most popular?
The single biggest year for Linda was 1947, when 99,909 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Linda is about 70 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Linda in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,164,879 people with the name Linda, or 385.68 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #20 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Linda in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Linda?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Linda appears almost entirely female. Of the 1,164,876 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Linda?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Linda is White at 82.5%. The next largest groups are Black (8.0%) and Hispanic (5.0%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Linda most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Linda in the 2020 Census, accounting for 82.5% (960,548 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Linda in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Linda a female name?
Yes, 99.7% of people registered as Linda in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Linda still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Linda in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Linda can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are named Linda?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.