Lynley
From English origins, a meadow or woodland clearing.
Name Census estimates that about 933 living Americans carry the first name Lynley. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Lynley today is around 24 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Lynley births was 2016 (46 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Lynley. 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.
People living today
933
~ 1 in 367,368 Americans
Peak year
2016
46 babies that year
Average age
24
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,220
Tracked since 1962
Census
Lynley in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 846 people with the first name Lynley, which placed it at #14,041 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
#14,041
National first-name rank
People counted
846
846 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
88.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Lynley
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lynley is White at 88.4%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (4.4%) and Hispanic (3.0%). 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 Lynley 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 Lynley at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White88.4% · 748
- Two or more races4.4% · 37
- Hispanic or Latino3.0% · 25
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.1% · 18
- Black or African American1.4% · 12
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 6
Popularity
Lynley: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Lynley from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 340 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Lynley remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Lynley 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 Lynley during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Lynleys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. Texas, Arkansas, Georgia recorded the most babies named Lynley, while Mississippi, Georgia, Arkansas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 11 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Lynley
The name Lynley has its roots in the Old English language and dates back to the 5th century AD. It is believed to have originated from the compound words "lind" meaning "lime tree" and "leah" meaning "meadow" or "clearing". Together, these words formed the name Lindleah, which eventually evolved into the modern spelling of Lynley.
The name was particularly popular in Anglo-Saxon England, where it was often used to refer to settlements or villages located near a lime tree-filled meadow or clearing. Some scholars suggest that the name may have been derived from a specific place name, such as Lindley in West Yorkshire, England.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Lynley can be found in the Domesday Book of 1086, where it appears as a surname. It is believed that the name later transitioned into a given name, particularly among the English nobility and gentry.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Lynley. One of the earliest was Lynley de Verdun (c. 1130–1199), a Norman nobleman and Lord of Westmorland in northern England. Another notable figure was Lynley Strachey (1480–1550), an English landowner and Member of Parliament during the reign of Henry VIII.
In the 17th century, Lynley Ferrar (1609–1679) was an English churchman and author who served as the chaplain to King Charles I. During the same period, Lynley Howard (1629–1699) was an English playwright and poet who wrote several successful works for the Restoration stage.
More recently, Lynley Browne (1914–1998) was an Australian actress and television personality who gained fame for her roles in various television series and films throughout the mid-20th century.
While the name Lynley has its origins in Old English, it has gained popularity across various cultures and regions over the centuries. However, its roots can be traced back to the Anglo-Saxon settlements of medieval England, where it was closely associated with the natural landscape and geographic features of the area.
People
Lynley + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Lynley 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
Lynley: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Lynley?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 933 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Lynley 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 367,368 US residents.
Is Lynley a common name?
We classify Lynley as "Very Rare". It ranks above 89.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 969 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Lynley most popular?
The single biggest year for Lynley was 2016, when 46 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Lynley is about 24 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Lynley in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 846 people with the name Lynley, or 0.28 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #14,041 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 Lynley 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 Lynley?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Lynley leans strongly female. 830 people counted with this name were female (98.6%), compared with 12 male bearers (1.4%). 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 Lynley?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lynley is White at 88.4%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (4.4%) and Hispanic (3.0%). 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 Lynley most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Lynley in the 2020 Census, accounting for 88.4% (748 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 Lynley in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Lynley a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Lynley 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 Lynley still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Lynley 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 Lynley 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 share the name Lynley?
Find out how many people share the name Lynley on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.